2 city businessmen held for posing as CBI officers

The CBI is also on the lookout for an accomplice,Sreenivas Naidu alias Venkat Reddy,who used to pose as a “big businessman” with “high contacts” in government offices.

“This is a sensational case of cheating,forgery and extortion involving two prominent persons. Based on market research conducted by the accused sometime in December 2009,Naidu approached the complainant,Suresh,a chartered accountant based in Hyderabad who helps the IT industry to sell its products. Naidu told him he had good contacts in New Delhi and could help sell their products and clear some of his deals pending government clearance,” said Rishi Raj Singh,joint director,CBI (Western Region).

Singh alleged that Naidu demanded Rs 75 lakh for his services,and Suresh paid it,but Naidu “disappeared” after that. “Naidu knew the complainant would try and get his money back and told friends to pass on Mehta’s number to him as a CBI contact’s number if he came to them. On receiving Mehta’s number,Suresh called him to try and get his money back. Identifying himself as CBI officer S K Jain,Mehta told him CBI was aware of his deal with Naidu. He threatened Suresh saying the Rs 75 lakh paid to Naidu had come from a disputed and highly controversial account,” Singh said.

He demanded Rs 15 lakh from Suresh for not taking action against him for the ‘disputed’ source of the fund. The next day,Helkar,a retired IAF officer,called the complainant posing as CBI inspector Ramsingh and negotiated with him till the amount was settled at Rs 10 lakh,he said. At this stage,the complainant approached the CBI and a case was registered on June 3.

“These accused never appeared in person before the victim,and the money is always paid to couriers and transferred through hawala channels. One of the couriers was arrested by us when he came to collect money from a hawala operator in Mumbai,” said Singh.

CBI officials said a sketch of Mehta was prepared and shown to CBI officers since Mehta had a previous CBI case against him. A CBI officer recognised the sketch and led the investigators to Mehta.

Helkar also has two bank fraud offences registered against him by the CBI.

“We believe they might be involved in other cases. They used aliases and were in touch with businessmen in Kolkata and Mumbai…,” said Singh.