NAHARLAGUN, Jul 8: The capital unit police arrested a conman identified as Ajit Kanu of Lakhimpur, Assam soon after he was released from the state quarantine facility (SQF) here in Lekhi after testing negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in cheating and applying fraudulent means to acquire money from banks.
As per a complaint received by the Axis Bank Naharlagun branch manager, Capital SP Tumme Amo informed that on 28 April, Kanu had called the branch manager over phone, claiming to be the PA of Itanagar MLA Techi Kaso.
Kanu allegedly requested a transfer of Rs 50,000 to the account number belonging to Kanu himself, while at the same time claiming that one of the daughters of the MLA was travelling from Bangalore to Itanagar and was stranded on the way due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kanu also said that he could not come to the bank due to the ongoing lockdown in the capital and had assured to visit the bank and return the money.
As per his request, Rs 50,000 was transferred to Kanu’s account by the Axis Bank branch manager.
When the manager contacted the local MLA, he learnt that the MLA had not given such instruction to his PA or any other person.
On receiving the complaint, a team of the Capital police, led by Additional SP Sumit Kr Jha, SDPO Nlg in-charge Kamdam Sikom, Naharlagun PS OC Inspector K Yangfo and SI RK Jha was established under the close supervision of the SP.
The phone number of the accused was put under surveillance and call detail record (CDR) was obtained. During analysis of his CDR and bank statements, it was revealed that the accused had cheated many innocent local girls by claiming to be a junior engineer.
The police convinced one of his girlfriends to invite him to Itanagar and help the police to nab him.
By 28 June his location was found to be at Lekhi, Nirjuli.
On further enquiry, it was revealed that the accused had entered Arunachal Pradesh and was staying at the SQF in Lekhi, introducing himself as a government employee and had changed his name to Anurag Kanu instead.
The police team was awaiting his Covid-19 test report and discharge, and arrested him soon after he was released from the quarantine centre.
Reportedly, the accused had previously used the same modus operandi and cheated the ICICI Bank, Naharlagun branch manager off Rs 80,000 in March this year.
The accused also called several branch managers of the Capital Region, like HDFC Bank Itanagar and Naharlagun branches, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank Itanagar branch and attempted to cheat them, but the police had already alerted all the banks about such mischievous activities, Amo informed.
