The Crime Branch police arrested six men from Palwal, Haryana, for deceiving BJP workers by claiming to be officers of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
On June 20, a BJP worker from Bopal approached the city crime branch, reporting that a man claiming to be a PMO officer attempted to cheat him out of ₹12 lakh by telling him it was an investment in a farmhouse project on Jaipur Highway in collaboration with a former chief minister of Rajasthan.
The false PMO officer claimed that the project would cost ₹4 crore and insisted that the BJP worker pay ₹12 lakh to participate. However, the BJP worker refused to pay and reported the attempted fraud to the police.
The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) registered a complaint on June 20 for impersonating a government officer, breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy, and forgery under the Indian Penal Code. Police traced the phone calls to Palwal, Haryana, leading them to the six suspects: Bharat Singh Jatav, 34; Irshad Khan, 35; Irshad Mev, 33; Sabir Mev, 19; Rakib Mev, 26; and Mohammed Jehan Mev, 24, who were subsequently arrested.
Earlier, these men used to defraud people via a pencil box packaging scheme. They would call individuals, promising large profits from packaging pencil boxes and requesting an advance payment of ₹620. After swindling eight to ten people, they would dispose of the SIM card and start anew. However, as the money was minimal in that scheme, they switched to impersonating PMO officers and targeting political party workers.