Army deserter held for cheating defence personnel

A former Army personnel has been arrested from near the New Delhi Railway Station here for cheating gullible armymen travelling in trains, said police.

The input was received from the Military Intelligence that Hemant Kumar was involved in the current spate of cheating and robberies with the Army personnel at different railway stations of Delhi-NCR.

The accused had adopted unique modus operandi to rob or cheat Army personnel coming on leave after making friendship with them by posing himself as Major in Army, police said.

Being ex-Army personnel, Hemant utilised his body language, knowledge of defence services and way of talking to influence the culprits. Thereafter, he robbed them or steal their belongings including their I-Card. He also used to extort money from them for returning their I-Card and belongings, police added.

The information was developed by deputing sources on all railway stations pertaining in Delhi. Discreet surveillance was kept upon the activities of suspicious persons of this kind of modus operandi. The culprit was later identified as Hemant Fauji by one of the sources.

On Thursday, the Special Cell of Delhi Police received a piece of specific information that Hemant would come to Paharganj side of the New Delhi Railway Station between 5 pm to 6 pm.

Later a trap was laid where Hemant arrived at 5:40 pm. He was cornered and overpowered. On the search of his travelling bag, many documents related to various Army personnel including their I-Cards, health cards, army driving licenses, ATM cards, etc., were recovered.

He was arrested under the relevant sections of law.

After thorough interrogation, Hemant disclosed that he hailed from Pilakhuwa of Uttar Pradesh's Hapur district. He had served in the Army for 12-13 years but due to his bad habits, he went underground. He was declared a deserter.

During his service period, he was serving in the 1st Medium Regiment of Artillery at Jodhpur.

He disclosed that he started his criminal activities by making friendship with Army personnel by posing himself as Captain or Major in the Army.

After winning their faith, he cheated them or stole their belongings including their I-Card. He also used to extort money from them for returning their I-Card and belongings.

He also disclosed that he was earlier arrested in three such cases by the Old Delhi Railway Station in 2014 and 2015. He is also convicted in one of these three cases.