As if the infighting was not sufficient, the Congress is dealing with a brand new menace in Punjab: impersonators of political strategist Prashant Kishor duping partymen after promising beneficial surveys and ballot tickets for the state elections subsequent yr.
On Tuesday, police in Ludhiana registered a case towards unidentified individuals for dialling social gathering leaders and asking them to publicly criticise the Chief Minister. It now seems that one other gang of Kishor impersonators was busted final month after it fleeced “at least 30-40 Congress leaders from Ludhiana, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Sangrur”.
Police sources mentioned the gang duped Congressmen of Rs 5 crore at the very least. “The gang-members were caught while trying to dupe MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid. He got suspicious when the impersonator asked for a gift to submit a survey report in his favour. The police laid a trap and two men were arrested from Jalandhar on May 11 and 13, respectively,” mentioned police sources.
Officers recognized these arrested as Rakesh Kumar Bhasin and Rajat Kumar Raja, and the important thing impersonator, who was nabbed later, as Gaurav Sharma. All of them hail from Amritsar, they mentioned.
“Sharma is a gambler who bets lakhs day-after-day. He has perfected Kishor’s model of talking after watching him on TV. He not solely duped leaders from Punjab but in addition Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and West Bengal.
There are instances registered towards the gang in different states however police weren’t in a position to pin them down,” a senior officer mentioned.
Most of these duped by the gang weren’t keen to be recognized, and refused to file a proper police criticism. Police sources mentioned a number of leaders, together with MLAs, a former Mayor, and candidates within the earlier state elections, had been focused.
When contacted, Vaid, who represents Gill in Ludhiana, mentioned he discovered the impersonator “very convincing”.
“I had met Kishor earlier, including recently when he had met MLAs in Chandigarh to ask about feedback from constituencies. Still, the impersonator was so convincing that for a moment I thought it was Kishor on the line. He had done his homework, and was talking to me as if he had actually surveyed my constituency. I got several calls from him over a period of 4-5 days,” Vaid mentioned.
“But then, the impersonator demanded Rs 10 lakh from me as a gift for two MLAs from other states who would conduct a survey and submit a report in my favour to make sure that I got a ticket. I became certain that this could not be Kishor. I spoke to my friends in the party and the police. I was told that there was a complaint from Sangrur, too, by Daman Thind Bajwa (a Congress candidate in 2017). We accompanied police to Jalandhar and the gang was arrested,” mentioned Vaid.
In her police criticism, Bajwa mentioned she obtained suspicious when the imposter requested her to deposit Rs 7 lakh.
In the most recent case, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Aggarwal advised The Indian Express that he couldn’t reveal particulars of an ongoing investigation.
Kishor was drafted by Amarinder Singh in January 2016 to advise the social gathering on technique for the 2017 elections. In March this yr, the Chief Minister appointed him as his principal advisor.
Over the previous couple of months, Kishor performed a key position in serving to the TMC retain energy in West Bengal earlier than asserting that he needed to take a break from ballot administration. He didn’t reply to requests from The Indian Express looking for remark.
The impersonators, in the meantime, have left the social gathering’s senior state management red-faced, particularly at a time when it’s scrambling to sort out widening fault traces inside the organisation.
Just a few leaders, together with Navjot Singh Sidhu, have raised the banner of revolt towards the Chief Minister after the High Court put aside an SIT investigation into the incidents of firing at Behbal Kalan and Kot Kapura.
AICC chief Sonia Gandhi has constituted a three-member committee, headed by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, to try to resolve the disaster.
In the most recent incident of Kishor impersonators in Ludhiana, police have registered a case below a number of IPC sections, together with 420 (cheatring), and part 66-D of the IT Act towards unknown callers for “inciting leaders to criticise the CM”. The FIR was registered on a criticism by Inspector Amandeep Singh who cited a tip-off from an informer.