The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested a private person who was impersonating an official of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi and was allegedly demanding bribes from loan applicants for approvals.
A case was registered a case on June 29 against the accused for posing as a Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying personnel and demanding a bribe of Rs 45,000 (2% of the Rs 22,50,000 loan amount) from the complainant.
The complainant is running a poultry farm at a village in Uttarakhand, and had applied for loan from Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) through Udyami Mitra (SIDBI) portal.
The probe agency had laid a trap on June 29, and the accused accepted bribe of Rs 5000 as the first instalment from the complainant by sending QR Code on the mobile phone of the complainant on the same day.
Based on the QR Code and bank account details, the CBI arrested a private person from his residence on June 30, however, during interrogation, it was found that he was not the main accused.
During the ongoing probe, sleuths found that the main accused had access to information about loan applicants and AHIDF applications, and he used to call many applicants, asking for bribes to ensure their loans would not be rejected.
By claiming to be an AHIDF official and discussing loan application details, he was obtaining money from many applicants daily.
The accused took money through UPI payments into other applicants’ bank accounts via QR code and then transferred it to other persons’ bank accounts through UPI transactions.
The CBI team continued its efforts by visiting Delhi, Agra and adjoining areas to trace the absconder, and, finally through sources and digital surveillance, it was found that the accused was demanding money by using different mobile numbers and was changing his locations frequently such as Agra, Jaipur, Delhi etc.
On Sunday, it was found that the accused had returned to his house at Village Chhota Pootha Bisarana, Fatehabad, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, and he was subsequently nabbed.
He will be produced before the court in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, officials said.