Absconding postal agent in CBI net after 10 years

An agent of post office saving schemes, wanted in a 10-year-old case of issuing forged Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) certificates of Rs.2.63 crore, was arrested by CBI officials from Badrinath where he was living as a seer on Monday, agency officials said.

Central Bureau of Investigation officials, pretending to be devotees, zeroed in on Durjodhan Mishra, who now calls himself Durgesh Maharaj, in the Hindu holy site in Uttarakhand and arrested him.

Mishra, who hails from Bihar's Madhubani, had settled in Kolkata with his wife and kids in sometimes in the 1990s and began working as an agent selling saving instruments like Kisan Vikas Patra etc.

CBI sources said Mishra came in contact with a postal assistant in Kolkata and with one more accomplice, he allegedly issued 263 forged Kisan Vikas Patra worth Rs 2.63 crore.

The money collected from gullible investors was allegedly pocketed by the trio, CBI said.

It was in 2004 that CBI took on the investigations which revealed the nexus between the three. By that time, Mishra had decamped with his family from Kolkata.

The agency launched a major campaign to nab the absconders in various cases and traced Mishra's family to Jodhpur in Rajasthan where they had settled but there was no sign of Mishra.

CBI sleuths kept a constant surveillance on Mishra's family and found that his wife got regular calls in night from two numbers in Badrinath. Both the numbers were found to be issued in the name of women in Uttarakhand.

Tracking the numbers, the agency officials camouflaged as 'bhakts' reached Badrinath and arrested Mishra.