Fraud coy busted, gang held in Manipur

Imphal, January 29: Sleuths of the Imphal West Narcotics Cell have busted a racket of Sikhs indulging in collection of money from the public on the false promise of supplying items of a non-existent company with the arrest of 22 members from Hotel Tampha at North AOC this morning. The total amount of money collected by the gang from the public is being estimated, official sources said. The 22 gang members hail from Bijnoor district's Nurpur in Uttar Pradesh. They were produced before media persons today. An official of the Narcotics Cell said the gang members were nabbed when they conducted a raid after getting a tip-off that some smugglers were staying in Hotel Tampha. They were staying in room numbers 2, 5 and 6. After interrogation, their intention and modus operandi were established, he said. The official said the gang member indulged in collecting advance money from several areas of the State on the promise of supplying household items in the name of a non-existent company. They also use a photo album in which the photographs of the items were pasted upon. The gang planed to disappear after collecting the advance money. They also have confessed that similar operations have been carried out at Guwahati, Shillong, Mao, Senapati, Tamenglong and Moreh earlier. The officials also showed some money receipts issued after collecting money in Thangmeiband, Nillakuthi, Uripok and some other areas in Imphal recently. The gang party had been staying in the hold for around ten days. However some of them have been operating in Manipur for around four months. The Narcotics officials recovered fake receipt books, letter heads, album, seal etc from the arrested members. Interrogation is on. It may be recalled that a similar group had decamped with a huge amount of money after collecting it through a fake office in Singjamei Chingamakha area some time back.