34-year-old conman arrested

A 34-year-old man who used to allegedly cheat gullible people after impersonating as a CBI officer has been arrested after he purportedly tried to extort Rs 17 lakh from BSES contractor after threatening to implicate him in a rape case.
The accused, identified as Balraj Singh Maharana alias Bunti a resident of Kota, Rajasthan was arrested yesterday by the Crime Branch.
Police has recovered forged identity cards depicting Singh as an officer of CBI and Railway Suraksha Bal, forged stamps of CBI, Stamp Pad, Singh's photograph in police uniform, handcuff, holster for revolver and two mobile phones.
"We had received a complaint on Wednesday from a BSES contractor that he has been continuously receiving extortion calls on his mobile phone from unknown numbers. The caller identified himself as an officer of CBI," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Chand.

The caller told the complainant that CBI was conducting an enquiry on sexual harassment against him on the complaint of a lady and if he did not pay Rs 17 lakhs, he would be implicated in a rape case, said Chand.
The complainant initially paid Rs 21,000 cash and subsequently lodged a complaint with the Crime Branch of Delhi Police.

"Yesterday, we laid a trap and apprehended the conman from Darya Ganj," said Chand.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that in 2010, he was arrested in a case of NDPS Act in Kota City, Rajasthan and after his release from jail 2012, he became a conman and started extorting money from people impersonating himself as an officer of CBI/Railway Suraksha Bal.

It was further revealed that he was also wanted in a case of kidnapping of the same area in which he and his associates had tried to kidnap a businessman of Kota but failed in their attempt, police said.