‘Man held for posing as Arun Jaitley’s son pulled off con jobs to fund gambling addiction’

Chaddha had saved his own number in the name of Rohan Jaitley in TrueCaller, and had also used a picture of the Jaitley father-son duo as his WhatsApp display image to sell his lie.

While interrogating him, the police learnt of a separate scam that he had pulled last month. “Chaddha, who comes from a Mumbai-based business family, entered into a partnership with a businessman last month who was trying to launch a medium-scale business in Mumbai.

The businessman was at that time trying to get a heavy loan sanctioned from a city based bank so that he could get the capital for his business. Around a week after the partnership was finalised, the loan was sanctioned. Chaddha then told his new business partner that he had, out of goodwill, pulled a lot of strings in the bank to get the loan sanctioned,” said a Crime Branch officer.

The unsuspecting businessman had no idea that he had got the loan without any help, and expressed gratitude towards Chaddha who then convinced the businessman to pay him Rs 25,000 as his “commission”, the officer added.

Inquiries till now have indicated that Chaddha pulled this scam at least twice before he landed in the police’s net.

However, the specifics of this aspect are still being verified, investigating officers said.

Chaddha, in his confession, has allegedly told the police that he started pulling off con jobs as he needed money for his gambling addiction.

“Chaddha is a regular visitor to some select casinos in Goa and needs money to keep playing. He started using his spare time to dream up such schemes so that he could pay off his debts, compensate for the losses that he incurred and keep placing more bets,” the officer said.

Chaddha has been remanded to police custody till October 9, and is being questioned further.

gautam.mengle@expressindia.com