With the arrest of two criminals, including the kingpin, the sleuths of Delhi Police have busted a gang who allegedly used to exhort money from residential and commercials customers by posing as BSES officials in South Delhi area.
The accused has been identified as Brijesh Sharma alias Prashant, the gang leader while his accomplice has been identified as and Sanjay Kumar.
According to Vijay Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South district, on Wednesday specific inputs were received that Prashant would be coming to meet his accomplice near Asian Market on Mehrauli-Badarpur road.
“Acting on the tip off, a trap was laid and the gang leader Prashant and his accomplice were apprehended,” said the DCP adding that during checking police also recovered 42 broken seals of different electricity meters, fake identity cards of BSES, implements used in breaking seal and uprooting meters.
Explaining their modus operandi the DCP said that the accused used to visit the premises posing themselves as BSES Vigilance team. “They used to uproot the meter and then they used to give threat of hefty bill and penalty. They used to re-install the meter of that person who used to agree on settling by giving money on the spot,” said the DCP.
“Most of the people do not lodge complaint but preferred to settle it by paying to the accused. Some of them only lodged First Information Reports (FIRs) of meter theft or sometimes lodged only lost reports for the purpose of applying new meters,” said the DCP.
“Police has solved around eight cases registered against the accused across national Capital. Police teams are verifying the involvement of the accused in other cases with similar modus operandi,” said the DCP adding that further investigation is going on.
Meanwhile, BSES appreciated the efforts of Delhi Police to bust a gang of impostors. “In the last 3-4 years, over 30 of these ‘impostors’ have been apprehended and most of them arrested. “These break-through have come on the back of a well-coordinated operations, involving the residents, smart sleuthing by BSES’ vigilance teams and the Delhi Police,” he said.
“We have been routinely urging our consumers to be wary of such unscrupulous elements. We once again appeal to our consumers not to get intimidated or induced by threats and/or false assurances of the ‘impostors’ and not give them any money - whatever be the reason. All fines and penalties and Commercial payments are to be made only at designated BSES offices,” said BSES spokesperson.
The official further said that consumers are advised to ascertain and verify the identity of persons who visit their premises, claiming BSES official. Consumers can also alert the nearest BSES office or call 262 73311 / 39999707 for BRPL and 8010930719 /41999808 for BYPL or inform the local Police on # 100 after noticing anything suspicious.