As if infighting weren’t sufficient, the Congress faces a brand new menace in Punjab: Impersonations of political strategist Prashant Kishor deceiving occasion males by promising favorable surveys and election tickets for subsequent yr’s state elections. Huh.
On Tuesday, police in Ludhiana registered a case towards unidentified individuals for dialing occasion leaders and asking them to criticize the chief minister in public. It is now realized that one other gang of juvenile impersonators was busted final month once they drove away “at least 30-40 Congress leaders from Ludhiana, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Sangrur”.
Police sources stated the gang duped the Congressmen of at the least Rs 5 crore. The gang members have been caught whereas making an attempt to cheat MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid. He grew to become suspicious when the impersonator requested for a present to current a survey report in his favor. Police laid a lure in Jalandhar and two folks have been arrested on May 11 and 13 respectively.
The arrested individuals have been recognized by the authorities as Rakesh Kumar Bhasin and Rajat Kumar Raja and the principle impersonator, who was later arrested, Gaurav Sharma. He stated that every one of them are residents of Amritsar.
“Sharma is a gambler who bets price lakhs day-after-day. After seeing Kishore on TV, he has mastered his fashion of talking. They duped the leaders of not solely Punjab but in addition Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and West Bengal.
Cases are registered towards the gang in different states, however the police haven’t been in a position to nab them,” stated a senior official.
Most of these duped by the gang have been unwilling to be recognized, and so they refused to file a proper police criticism. Police sources stated a number of leaders, together with legislators, a former mayor and candidates, have been focused within the final state elections.
When contacted, Vaid, who represents Gill in Ludhiana, stated he discovered the impersonator “very reassuring”.
“I had met Kishor earlier recently when he met MLAs in Chandigarh, asking him about the reaction from the constituencies. Still, the impersonator was so convincing that for a moment I thought this teen was on the line. He had done his homework, and was talking to me as if he had actually surveyed my constituency. I got several calls from him in a span of 4-5 days,” Vaid stated.
“But then, the impersonator demanded Rs 10 lakh from me as a gift for two MLAs from other states, who would conduct a survey and submit a report in my favor to ensure that I get the ticket. I was convinced that this could not be a teenager. I talked to my friends and the police at the party. I was told that a complaint was also made to Sangrur by Daman Thind Bajwa (Congress candidate in 2017). We went to Jalandhar with the police and the gang was arrested,” Vaid stated.
Bajwa stated in his police criticism that he received suspicious when the fraudster requested him to deposit Rs 7 lakh.
In the newest case, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Agarwal advised The Indian Express that he couldn’t give particulars of the continued investigation.
Kishor was drafted by Amarinder Singh in January 2016 to advise the occasion on the technique for the 2017 elections. In March this yr, the Chief Minister appointed him as his principal advisor.
Over the previous few months, Kishor was instrumental in serving to the TMC retain energy in West Bengal earlier than asserting that he needed to take a break from election administration. He didn’t reply to requests from The Indian Express looking for remark.
Meanwhile, the impersonators have left the occasion’s senior state management red-faced, particularly at a time when it’s scrambling to take care of a rising fault throughout the organisation.
After the High Court quashed the SIT probe into the firing incidents in Behbal Kalan and Kot Kapura, some leaders together with Navjot Singh Sidhu have raised the flag of insurrection towards the Chief Minister.
AICC chief Sonia Gandhi has constituted a three-member committee headed by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge to try to resolve the disaster.
In the newest incident of juvenile impersonators in Ludhiana, police have booked unidentified callers for “inciting politicians to criticize CM” below a number of IPC sections together with 420 (dishonest), and part 66-D of the IT Act. case has been registered for The FIR was registered on the criticism of Inspector Amandeep Singh, who had cited info obtained from an informer.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
