SHIMLA, Sept 30: When Bimla Devi, 33, met Naresh Bholla in a bus in Delhi six years ago, after being deserted by her husband, little did she realise the vicious circle she was entering into. Having two grown-up children to feed, the two decided to get married. And thus began a life of `comfort' albeit with deceit.Today, Bimla, who is also a member of the Block Development Committee, Theog, finds herself behind bars along with her second husband Naresh and five others including an 83-year old Ram Charan Verma. They are part of an inter-state gang of conmen who have reportedly duped a large number of businessmen of this region of lakhs of rupees. Five members of the gang belong to Sonepat in Haryana. The modus operandi adopted by the gang is simple. Gang leader Naresh Bholla alias Vijay Chauhan alias Vinay used to select a rich target through directories and the advertisements in newspapers. The target is then contacted on telephone inviting him to Shimla for accomplishing a contract awarded by the Army or the government.According to A K Puri, ADGP (Crime) and R.L.Sood, SP (CID), Brahm Parkash of Janer Ghat near Chail was duped of Rs 2.55 lakh while another party of Jukhala was cheated of Rs 1.10 lakh. Till now the gang headed by Naresh has cheated 24 businessmen many belonging to Ludhiana in Punjab. Sood, SP (CID) explained, the gang posed itself as leading businessmen, government suppliers and contractors. Naresh owned a Maruti Zen bearing a Chandigarh registration number, which was used to impress the clientale. Once the party reaches Shimal, Anil Kumar was entrusted with the job to lead the person to their showy office.While the negotiations would begin to supply food stuff or other material worth lakhs of rupees, Ram Charan Verma posing as a ``millionaire marwari seth'' hailing from Calcutta was introduced to the parties. The ``seth'' clad in white dhoti-kurta, jacket, a cap and supporting a silver stick in his hand would appear from nowhere. He was shown as an extravagant person given to gambling. A special game was played with the help of 50 pieces of Rajmah. The munim of the ``seth'' would carry a brief case ``full of currency notes''.Sood said that the brief case actually used to contain bundles of white paper cut to the size of notes of 500 and 100 denomination. The paper bundles were covered by a single genuine note and banded.In the drama, the Marwari Seth was made to lose in the first game to the tune of say Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakh depending on the status of the party. At the time of passing over the money to the victorious client, the Marwari Seth would insist on the former to show whether he was a genuine businessman. If the visiting victorious party did not have full money, the gang members would offer some loan to equalise with the amount won. The party was told that on his bringing an equivalent amount, the money won in the game would be paid.On the next fixed date, when the party arrived with the amount, another gambling game would ensue. He was tricked into losing the entire money. Naresh's cousin brother Sanjay Bholla was reported to be heading another gang of cheats based in Dehradun, besides being actively involved with Shimla group. The gang also had a ``working group'' in Delhi.ADGP Puri said that some persons were even cheated twice. The crime had been taking place here for the last over three years.Those booked are Naresh Bholla, Sanjay Bholla, Anil Kumar, Sher Singh, Ram Charan Verma, Zile Singh and Bimla Devi.
