Men posing as Jay Shah ask Rs 3cr to make MLA a minister, 2 arrested

Rudrapur: Two men were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly impersonating Union home minister Amit Shah's son, Jay Shah, and demanding Rs 3 crore from Rudrapur MLA Shiv Arora, promising to make him a minister. Police said Arora's aide Abhishek Mishra filed a complaint saying that on Feb 13, the MLA received a call from an unknown number. The caller, identifying himself as Jay Shah, spoke for 14 minutes and 22 seconds, claiming he could secure a ministerial position for Arora in exchange for Rs 3 crore. When Arora requested to speak with Amit Shah or BJP president J P Nadda, the fraudster cited their busy schedules. Later that evening, the MLA received five more calls from the same number. Following reports of similar scams targeting other MLAs, a special operations group and US Nagar police traced the number to Uwais Ahmed, a scrap dealer from Etah, who supplied the SIM cards. He was arrested in Rudrapur. Another accused, Priyanshu Pant, a native of Bageshwar, was nabbed in Haridwar. The alleged mastermind, Gaurav Nath from New Delhi's Ghazipur area, remains at large, police said.SSP Manikant Mishra said, "Uwais admitted that Gaurav conceived the scheme after watching a web series. He then roped in Priyanshu and Uwais, promising quick money. The group allegedly obtained MLAs' contact details from various states and executed similar frauds using two SIM cards — one active for over 18 months without valid identification."