The Rae Bareli police on January 30 arrested a man named Abdul Saleem, a resident of Budheshwar, Alamnagar in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh for posing as an adviser to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, in order to pressurise the Uttar Pradesh police to act in a dowry case. The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by Sardar Kotwali SP Ravindra Sonkar.
Following the arrest, Abdul Saleem, who is the main accused in the case, reportedly confessed that he made the plan along with his brother Abdul Haneef as they wanted to implicate their sister’s husband and her in-laws in a dowry case. The accused said that the plan was masterminded by one of their associates named Sayeed Nasar Nafeez alias Sahil, who gave them the idea of impersonating as Yogi Adityanath’s adviser to mislead and pressurize the police to take action against their sister’s husband and in-laws.
Rae Bareli police took to Twitter on January 31, a day after the arrest was made, to share the details of the case. In a Press release, the Rae Bareli police informed that on January 22, when SP Ravindra Sonkar was in official duty he received a call from a mobile phone on the PS’s landline. The caller had claimed to be calling from the CM’s office.
माननीय मुख्यमंत्री जी का फर्जी सलाहकार बनकर फोन पर अनुचित दबाव बनाने वाला अभियुक्त गिरफ्तार #UPPolice @Uppolice @adgzonelucknow @Igrangelucknow @dgpup @rohitmishranews @News18UP @Surajyadav6681 @ZeeNews @KanchanToday @JagranNews @AmarUjalaNews @Live_Hindustan pic.twitter.com/v4uUgDsYId
— Raebareli Police (@raebarelipolice) January 31, 2021
Introducing himself as CM Yogi Adityanath’s adviser, the caller told SP Sonkar that one of his acquaintances Dr Salim and his relatives would be visiting the police station. He ordered Sonkar to look into their case on an urgent basis and take prompt and strict action based on their complaint.
After a while, the impersonators visited the Sadar Kotwali and met SP Ravindra Sonkar. They handed over a complaint to him written by Haneef. In the complaint, Haneef had accused his sister’s husband and her in-laws of harassing her for dowry. Based on the complaint an FIR was registered against Haneef’s sister’s husband and in-laws, under IPC sections 498A, 354A, 323, 342, 504, 506.
Later, once again Sonkar received a call from the same mobile number. He was then asked to include IPC section 376 (Punishment for rape) in the FIR.
The way efforts were being made to constantly pressurise the police to take speedy and strict action in the case, created aspersions about the credibility of the caller, following which police dialled the CM’s office to find out details about this person who had been posing as the adviser of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The caller’s mobile number was put under surveillance, which revealed that he was actually a fraud.
The Rae Bareli police then filed an FIR against the imposter under IPC sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and also evoked 66(C) and 66(I) of the IT Act. They conducted raids and arrested the main accused from his residence in Alamnagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The Rae Bareli police have also recovered a mobile phone, two mobile SIMs, both belonging to different service providers, and Rs 25,000 in cash from the accused. Meanwhile, police have also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for anyone providing information about the mastermind Sayeed Nasar Nafeez alias Sahil.
