‘Natwarlal’ held for posing as IAS officer, duping builder of Rs 6 lakh

BIKANER: The Sriganganagar police on Saturday arrested a fake bureaucrat for allegedly extorting Rs 6 lakh from a builder in Sadar police station area.
Accused, Suresh Kumar Ghanchi (34), a resident of Rajat Nagar in Pali district, is a notorious swindler, also infamous as Natwarlal of Pali. He called builder Mukesh Shah posing as former district collector of Sriganganagar, Zakir Husain using call spoofing, the police said.
Sadar SHO, Kuldeep Charan said that the accused asked Shah to arrange Rs 16 lakh immediately posing as former district collector and convinced him to arrange the money in Mumbai under the pretext of his brother’s illness. The builder then called his brother in Mumbai and asked him to give the available cash to Husain or his man. However, his brother in Mumbai could manage only Rs 6 lakh and gave it to Suresh, who introduced himself as Husain’s relative. After realizing the fraud, Shah informed the police and filed a complaint in Sriganganagar.
Sriganganagar SP, Anand Sharma, while talking to the media persons on Saturday said that the police had acted after receiving Shah’s complaint in which he stated that he had been duped by an unknown caller who had introduced himself as former DM. Sharma said that given the sensitivity of the issue, a team headed by city circle officer, was formed to nab the accused. The police team arrested Suresh after working on technical inputs.
According to police records, Suresh is a habitual offender and he learnt the call spoofing from a Nigerian cellmate during his imprisonment at Jodhpur Jail.