Former secretary of CM Pushkar Dhami arrested in fraud case

Dehradun, March 15

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s former private secretary P C Upadhyay has been arrested for defrauding a pharmaceutical company owner of over Rs 50 lakh on the pretext of getting him an e-tender, police said on Friday.

Upadhyay was arrested in Dehradun on Thursday, Senior Superintendent of Police Ajai Singh said.

He was produced in a local court and sent to jail, Singh said.

The victim Ram Keval, who runs a medicine factory JR Pharmaceutical in in SIDCUL, Haridwar, had lodged a case in the matter on March 9, the police said.

Keval, in his complaint, alleged that Upadhyay had promised him an e-tender of Rs 5 crore for supplying medicines in various districts of Uttarakhand, they said.

He added that one Saurabh Vats arranged his meeting with Upadhyay and also took money from him.

Keval alleged he was duped of Rs 51,71,440 in separate installments and apart from Upadhyay and Vats, named four others—Vats’s wife Nandini, Shahrukh Khan, Mahesh Mahariya and Sonak Mahariya—in the complaint, the police said.

Vats was arrested on Wednesday from Bhilwara by Rajasthan Police in connection with another case of fraud, they said.

The other four accused in the e-tender case are still on the run, they added.