Accused of theft, cheating, NRI cries foul

The complainant told Newsline that he paid Rs 10,000 as advance to the two. "I had some doubts that they would trick me but then they took me to the university several times, though they would say that the V-C was not available. Since the money was safe each time, I thought they were genuine guys," he said.

"On August 6, they took me and my cousin to the PU campus. I did not have the complete amount so I took with me Rs 1.15 lakh, which I put in the dickey of my scooter. When we reached the Department of Correspondence Courses, they asked me to wait. They went inside and came back after a while, saying that an affidavit was immediately required which said that there was no business deal. I went with Pankaj Sharma for the affidavit to Sector 17," Garg added.

He alleged that when the two reached the Estate Office in Sector 17, Sharma insisted on staying back and taking care of the money. "When we came back to PU, I opened the dickey and found that the money was missing. I fell unconscious because of the shock. I am sure Pankaj Sharma has stolen the money and that the two have connived in the act. He stole the money in Sector 17," Garg alleged.

Based on the complainant’s allegations, Senior Superintendent of Police C.S.R. Reddy has directed the Sector 17 police to register a case. Sharma and Ravinder Kumar have been booked for theft and cheating.

Ravinder Kumar, however, denied that he had a role to play in the episode. "They had asked me to help Anil Kumar in getting a seat in the NRI quota to which I agreed," he said. He instead alleged that he was being falsely implicated by Garg. "This guy (Garg) is trying to blackmail me because I have to go back to Guyana and I will have to pay him for getting myself cleared. Besides, I had lent him Rs 40,000 this month and maybe, he doesn’t wan’t to pay back that money," Ravinder Kumar said. He also alleged that Garg’s uncle, who was politically connected, had exerted pressure on the police.

Parveen Garg denied that he had ever borrowed money from Ravinder. He, however, agreed that his uncle was an RSS office-bearer in Faridabad and had come down to Chandigarh for registration of the case.

SSP Reddy, while denying that the police had registered a case under pressure, said: "These days it is a trend that whoever makes a complaint brings someone along. We don’t give weightage to that. If a complaint is received, a case has to be registered under directions of the Supreme Court.

We will conduct the investigation impartially and see that no one is implicated falsely." Reddy added that the police would conduct lie-detector tests and legal action would be taken against the complainant if the complaint is found to be false.