Ludhiana police bust gang of fraudsters who impersonated cops to dupe unemployed youth

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Ludhiana, March 7

The Ludhiana police have busted a gang of fraudsters who impersonated police officers to dupe the unemployed youth on the pretext of recruiting them as volunteers in the crime and criminal tracking network system.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that working on a tipoff an FIR was registered. A special team of Cyber Cell, CIA-2 and Division No 7 Police, Ludhiana, arrested one Pankaj Suri of Bhamian Kalan, Ludhiana, who divulged that Avilok alias Aman of Thanesar, Kurukshetra, Haryana, is operating the racket from the Sangrur jail.

The commissioner said the accused revealed that they had duped hundreds of youths in Punjab, UP, Maharashtra and Telangana. They got Rs 999 transferred from every applicant through online as fee for registration for the job. The accused had created Facebook accounts using logos similar to government logos. They even used emails similar to the official email addresses, he added.

Five mobile phones, three laptops and a printer were seized from Pankaj. Upon recovery of the phones from Aman from the Sangrur jail, a fresh FIR was registered against him.

The commissioner said Aman is a hardcore criminal having about 30 cases registered against him and is one of the accused in the Nabha jailbreak case.