City crime branch raided a fake Income Tax Department office and arrested five people, including mastermind, for duping youth of Rs 40 lakh in the name of providing jobs in Rajendra Nagar area on Monday. The accused have been impersonating as Income Tax officers and were using fake seals and other documents to gain the trust of victims.
Interestingly, the accused have also sent some youth for the poll duty in assembly elections. Senior Superintendent of Police Ruchi Vardhan Mishra told the media persons that a victim Shubham Sahu, a resident of Raj Nagar Extension area of the city, has lodged a complaint against Devendra Dabar of Bhil Colony in Musakhedi area (permanent resident of Kukshi in Dhar district), Sunil Mandloi of Kukshi, Ravi Solanki of Shanti Nagar area of the city, Durgesh Gehlot of New Indira Nagar and Satish Gawad of Bhil Colony for posing themselves as Income Tax officers and duping him in the name of providing job in the department. Crime branch officials were instructed to trace the accused.
A case under section 419, 420, 34 of IPC has been registered against the accused at Rajendra Nagar police station. In his complaint Shubham stated that he was searching for a job when his friend Pawan Singh Solanki had arranged a meeting with Devendra Dabar. Dabar posed himself as Chief Investigation Officer from Intelligent and Criminal Investigation Department (Income Tax) and showed him his fake identity card.
Shubham further said that Dabar assured him that there was a vacancy for the post of Surveyor Field Officer and took his mark sheets of class X and XII and other certificates, adding that Dabar issued him an appointment letter (with the stamp of ITD Government of India and Chief Commissioner, Income Tax Department, Indore) on August 10, 2017.
Shubham told the police that he saw about 25 youth working at Dabar’s house and office. Dabar used to taught them with the help of books related to Income Tax. Accused Sunil and Ravi were also involved and taught youth about the income tax. They had also given identity cards to them. Accused Devendra Dabar had promised the victims to give salary of Rs 10,000 to 12,000 per month as salary after probation period of three months which they did not get.
Dabar had opened a new office at 190-B Silicon City in 2018 where he appointed six peons and a driver with uniform of Income Tax. About 35 to 40 employees used to work in that office. Shubham and other youth told Dabar to issue them job confirmation letter when the accused asked them to give Rs 50,000 each to get the job in the department. Shubham and his friend Pawan gave Rs 25,000 each to the accused but he did not give them permanent employment.
According to the victim, the accused had taken lakh of rupees from other youth in the name of permanent job. Police found names of 70 to 75 youth registered with the accused. The accused have taken money from each person and when the victims told them to give salaries after scheduled time they were told that the Government of India has not allocated any budget for salaries.
During the investigation it was found that the accused has also sent 20 youth for poll duty in the assembly elections in Pithampur in 2018. Devendra Dabar used to pose as an Income Tax officer with his accomplices and was moving in a SUV which bore a name plate of the Government of India. His accomplices used to sit in the vehicle in uniform.
It is reported that Shubham also came to know from Satish Gawad that Dabar and his team had raided many places posing as Income Tax officers. Plan for raids in ‘Special 26’ style: Dabar and his accomplices were planning to conduct raids at places of many businessmen in different localities. Police said that he had prepared files of renowned businessmen from Kukshi, Manawar, Khandwa, Dewas, Khangone, Alirajpur, Dhar, Jhabua and Indore. He was training youth to conduct raids. Dabar had prepared a plan to raid businesses in style of the Bollywood movie “Special 26”, the police added.