Man who posed as poll strategist to allure Congress MLA for party ticket held

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 13

A man, who posed as Prashant Kishore, a poll strategist, and attempted to allure a sitting Congress MLA of Ludhiana for a confirmed ticket in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, has been arrested.

The alertness of the MLA led to the arrest of the accused and another gang member. The Ludhiana police in a joint operation with the Sangrur police busted the gang. Though senior police officials are mum about the development, citing the ongoing operation but confirmed police sources revealed that the police have arrested two members of the gang.

Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal didn’t respond to repeated queries while ADCP Jaskaranjit Singh Teja also refused to comment on the matter.

As per information, in April this year, one of the arrested gang members had called Daman Thind Bajwa, national secretary, Indian Youth Congress, Sunam, and posing as Prashant Kishore, allured her for confirmed party ticket in the upcoming Assembly elections.

“The man was posing as Prashant and his voice was exactly the same. I replied to all his queries thinking that he is the Principal Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister and a renowned political strategist but when he demanded Rs 7 lakh from me, I turned suspicious and I informed senior Congress leaders and the police. An FIR was also lodged by the Sunam police,” Bajwa said.

Recently, the gang targeted the sitting Congress MLA of Ludhiana and allured him of confirmed ticket for the Assembly elections. Since the MLA was aware of the recent case of Sunam, he acted smartly and did not let them feel that he was aware about the gang. The Ludhiana MLA had contacted the Sunam leader and was in touch with Sangrur and Ludhiana police.

Last Saturday, the MLA was called by the alleged Prashant Kishore and his team members at a hotel in Jalandhar for a meeting. The MLA had asked the Ludhiana police to lay a trap and catch the ‘fake Prashant Kishore’. The police managed to catch the gang members.

As per the Sunam Congress leader Daman Thind Bajwa, arrested members are Rakesh and Rajat. She said, initially the person acting as PK used to talk for the party ticket and later, two other persons used to act as team members of PK and they were to collect money on PK’s behalf. The Ludhiana MLA, who requested anonymity, told The Tribune that he had got a call from fake Prashant Kishore and now, the police had busted the gang and police operation was still on to catch all gang members.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.