Two alleged Chennai-based scamsters orchestrated an elaborate scam using forged letters from a Union minister and former president and fake email ID of a former chief justice of India, duping Rs 25 lakh of conning gullible victims by claiming to appoint them as office bearers of a fictitious anti-graft organisation, officials said Monday.
The two accused, Reningston Sales and Vincent Raju, allegedly started a scheme to swindle money from people by claiming to get them appointed as office bearers and executives of "Anti Corruption and Anti Crime (ACAC) Wing" -- a fictitious organisation, according to a CBI charge sheet.
To lend credibility to their deception, the duo allegedly fabricated official-looking paraphernalia -- including letterheads bearing the national emblem, rubber stamps, ID cards, and visiting cards-and set up two fake offices in Chennai and gave a non-existent address of Paharganj in the national capital as the "head office", the agency alleged in its chargesheet submitted at a special court here.
Sales and Raju got anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court and now they have been summoned by Special CBI court which has taken cognisance of charge against them.
The accused allegedly forged a letter dated 10 June 2017, purportedly signed by Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, notifying all state chief secretaries of the appointment of retired chief justice of India RM Lodha as the president of the so-called ACAC Wing.
The duo allegedly prepared a forged email ID -- "rmlodha.justice@gmail.com", which they used to convince the targeted victims. During the investigation, the CBI approached Google which confirmed to the agency that the email ID was prepared from the IP address of Sales. His phone number was provided as the recovery phone number, the agency found.
They forged another letter dated May 11, 2018 purportedly issued by then President of India Ram Nath Kovind addressed to Justice Lodha congratulating him for accepting the position of "National President" of ACAC Wing of India, the agency alleged.
Sales and Raju also opened two offices of the fictitious organisation in Chennai and circulated a bogus address of Paharganj, New Delhi as the "head office".
They collected money in the form of membership and office bearer fee from gullible victims by offering them positions at various zonal and state offices of their fictitious organisation. The duo allegedly collected around Rs 25 lakh from their victims.
The money was deposited in a current account in Indian Bank in the name of ACAC Wing of India which was opened in Indian Bank by using a forged resolution of the organisation, the CBI has alleged.
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