Man held for duping people with fake pollution certificates

The crime branch of Delhi Police on Saturday said they arrested a 42-year-old man from Greater Noida on Thursday for allegedly making fake Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) certificates for different business establishments in the Capital.

Police seized 12 fake DPCC certificates, one laptop, and two phones from the suspect, officers said.

Ravindra Singh Yadav, the special commissioner of police (crime), identified the suspect as Manish Poddar, a resident of Greater Noida.

“On July 23, a complaint was received from the owner of a sweets shop, who was opening a new sweet manufacturing workshop at Naraina Industrial Area and an outlet at Pitampura. He required DPCC certificates for these. He met Poddar who claimed to know the procedure to procure the certificate. Poddar provided him with the certificates after charging ₹2,01,600. The certificates were later found to be fake,” said Yadav.

“During interrogation, Poddar disclosed that he often used to visit the business associations where he met owners of factories and shops, who wanted to ease their work of getting the DPCC certificates. Poddar introduced himself as an agent and consultant. So far, we have identified six victims,” he said.

Yadav said that Poddar is an engineer and also did his MBA. “He worked at two banks but left these jobs and started his own firm to provide sewage treatment plants to small industries in Naraina and Udyog Vihar in Gurugram. During his visits, he came to know about pollution certificates and the formalities to obtain the same,” he added.