LUDHIANA, Aug 9: The police have arrested two women Bimla Verma and Aruna Rani who claimed to be the president of women council and general secretary of the anti-corruption cell respectively.The duo was produced before the illaqa magistrate and remanded to police custody till Monday.According to SSP Dinkar Gupta, the two women had already been booked for cheating and defrauding one Maninder Pal Singh, a resident of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar locality here.The accused women, one of them (Bimla) a former employee in a local cooking gas agency, claiming that their association had obtained a sanction for 100 LPG cooking gas connections for out of turn allotment from an oil company, had collected Rs 6,000 from the complainant for two LPG connections which were never released.Bimla and Aruna further convinced the complainant that with their ``influence and high connections'' they could approach the Indian Oil Company and get an LPG agency allotted in his name for a consideration of a hefty sum.Maninder Pal Singh, allured by the prospects of being a gas distributor, parted with Rs 7.43 lakh. The gas agency never materialised and the women fled there after.Varinder Kumar, SP(HQ) and incharge of economic wings, who is investigating the case, informed that both the women were habitual offenders and were already facing two criminal cases.The court had cancelled their bail in both the cases and they were also wanted in two more cases of similar nature.Besides claiming to be the office bearers of several women organisations like Mahila Congress, anti-corruption cell, Ladies Welfare Council Congress wing and leading a lavish lifestyle, Bimla had also dabbled in politics and had unsuccessfully contested the civic body election from ward no.24 of the city, Kumar added.
