Conman who duped parents of Pulwama martyr arrested

Tribune News Service

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Ropar, July 29

A conman who posing as a CRPF official duped the parents of Pulwama martyr Kulwinder Singh of Rs 1.5 lakh at Rauli village near here was arrested after an encounter with the Hapur police in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

The accused has been identified as Harender, a resident of Mathura. His accomplice Vishnu, alias Chhotu, has also been arrested.

Hapur SHO Mahvir Singh Chauhan said the duo had duped relatives of martyrs in various states, including Punjab, UP, Chhattisgarh, MP and Gujarat. Harender has even acquired properties in Noida from this money. He said the accused used to get details of victims’ families through internet and used to approach them after a few months as by that time the relatives of martyrs used to compensation and other dues from the government.

It was on May 2 when a conman in CRPF uniform reached the house of Kulwinder Singh who was martyred on February 14. He told the family members that they would be allotted a petrol pump or a cooking gas agency by the Centre and he had come from the CRPF headquarters in New Delhi to complete paper work in this regard. He asked them to transfer Rs 20 lakh into a bank account. Believing him, Darshan Singh took him to his bank branch where the bank officials refused to transfer such a huge amount to some other bank account due to the model code of conduct.

Following this Darshan Singh withdrew Rs 1.5 lakh from his three bank accounts and handed it over to the conman. The conman also took away motorcycle and mobile phone of Darshan Singh.

The Hapur SHO said the accused had confessed to duping Darshan Singh of Rs 1.5 lakh. He said earlier Harender had duped the wife of martyr Lance Naik Hem Raj of Rs 10 lakh at Mathura and even undergone a six-year sentence for this. In June, the duo duped Rs 7 lakh from the mother of Shobhit Sharma at Hapur. Sharma was martyred in a Naxal attack. They duped Rs 8 lakh from the wife of Om Prakash, a martyr in Pulwama blast who belonged to Sihor in Madhya Pradesh.