Con became crorepati by duping bizmen and politicians

LUCKNOW Alleged conman, Sanjay Prasad Rai alias Sanjay Sherpuriya, in his fifties now, duped several people of over ₹300 crore in the past seven years by faking access to the Prime Minister’s Office and portraying himself close to senior politicians and bureaucrats, said STF officials here on Wednesday. .

Rai extorted huge sums of money from industrialists and politicians by creating fear of central law enforcement agencies like Enforcement Directorate and CBI. The accused even posted morphed pictures with top leaders on social media platforms to hoodwink his clients, a senior official said.

The fraudster named his home WiFi account as ‘Prime Minister’s residence’ at his house in Delhi, claiming that he worked in association with the PMO. He has a bungalow in Delhi’s Safdarganj locality behind Race Course road and maintained an affluent lifestyle.

The UP STF registered a case against Rai, who was taken into custody from Kanpur railway station on April 25 when he was travelling from his native place in Ghazipur to Delhi. The STF took him into custody on an input from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and his arrest was shown from Vibhuti Khand police station in Lucknow, as police didn’t find any formal complaint from any of his victims. Therefore, UP STF inspector Sachin Kumar filed a case against Rai on April 25.

Rai was booked under IPC sections 420 (fraud), 467 (forging documents), 468 (using forged documents for cheating purposes), and 469 (forgery to harm reputation), 384 (extortion) and Section 66D (impersonating using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act for using his morphed pictures with several Union ministers and RSS office-bearers.

Sanjay Prasad Rai, a resident of Sherpur village of UP’s Ghazipur district, started using his village name as his title. His aide Mohammed Kashif was arrested by the STF from his residence in Gautam Buddh Nagar on April 19.

There was an input from the IB that Rai was involved in extortion and procured money through fraudulent means. The FIR added that the accused, who served as the director of Kandla Energy and Chemicals Limited, defaulted on an SBI loan. He had been operating from Delhi and Ghazipur (UP) for the past few years.

Primary investigation revealed that he received ₹6 crore in two installments in January, according to the STF inspector.

Sources said he procured ₹6 crore from a Delhi-based industrialist for ‘managing’ action by the Enforcement Directorate against him.

The accused also created an impression that he would contest Lok Sabha elections from Ghazipur in 2024 and operated an NGO ‘Sanjay for Youth’, whose tagline reads -- ‘making the entire Ghazipur district of U.P. self-employed’.

The Delhi unit of ED had already unearthed his 19 movable properties worth ₹14.54 crore, including 18 bank accounts with a balance of ₹13,96 crore and one movable property in the form of a Mercedes car worth ₹58,05,000 in the name of accused, his family members and entities where proceeds of crime were placed. The ED froze these bank accounts and attached the properties during the ongoing investigation against him.