Lucknow: From waiting tables at a restaurant in Gujarat to reaching the power corridors of Lutyens Delhi with “direct access” to key politicians in the government and playing a “trouble shooter” for senior bureaucrats, including the ones serving in the CBI — Sanjay Rai Sherpuria managed many profiles in the last 20 years.
So elaborate was Sherpuria’s ‘con’ that he paid attention to the minutest of details. A Wi-Fi network named ‘PMO’, an address which mentioned ‘Race Course road’ and a PR agency that created multiple fan pages for him on social media. It all seemed to work well.
He would ask visitors to connect to his Wi-Fi network named ‘PMO’ whenever they complained about a weak signal, creating an impression that he had direct access to the network at Modi’s office.
Arrested by the UP Police Special Task Force (STF) for allegedly duping people, including industrialists, by falsely claiming links to the PMO and getting hefty donations for his Youth Rural Entrepreneur Foundation (YREF), the 50-year-old con allegedly netted donations from top business houses as well as connections to politicians.
From hiring a bungalow in Central Delhi through his father’s connection, to flaunting links with politicians, he created a façade of being “close to the PMO”, which he then used to dupe people of several crores, police sources told ThePrint.
As part of that façade, he authored a series of books — including ‘I am Madhobhai: A Pakistani Hindu’, ‘Hindu Dharma Ki Dharohar: Bharatiya Sanskriti’, ‘Karhata Bengal’, and ‘Teachers’ — which he managed to get released by eminent personalities such as governors and ministers in the BJP government, photographs of which he posted all over social media.
On the social media page of his foundation, along with ‘fan pages’ managed by the PR firm he hired, Sherpuria uploaded several pictures of him with eminent leaders, including PM Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Besides that, he regularly wrote for Hindi newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala and also featured in Forbes magazine for setting up a ‘lakdi’ (firewood) bank in Ghazipur to help the poor and marginalised perform the last rites of their family members with dignity, during the second wave of Covid. So much so that TV channels also ran documentaries on the “emerging entrepreneur”.
According to the police, Sherpuria not only managed to deceive businessmen but also senior bureaucrats and officers, including that of the Central Bureau of Investigation, who often approached him with requests to “put in a good word” to the top leadership for “transfers and postings”. And in most cases, he even managed to extend help.
A case was lodged against him at Lucknow’s Vibhuti Khand police station last month, and he was arrested by the STF on charges of cheating, forgery and under the IT Act.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Sherpuria told the police that he received Rs 6 crore from the Dalmia Family Trust Office, the family office of industrialist Gaurav Dalmia, for his foundation in 2023.
A police source said that Sherpuria accumulated money from big industrialists for years and then laundered it using shell companies.
Investigation in the case has revealed that he was running over 56 shell companies in which he kept his acquaintances as directors and kept pumping in money as “start-up donation”.
But how did he pull off a con of such level for so many years?
Also Read: How Kiran Patel used ‘RSS link’ to start J&K con game. ‘Overacting’ & IAS-IPS confusion blew cover
From waiter to trouble-shooter for bureaucrats
Sherpuria’s story is no less than a Bollywood film script.
Born in Assam, Sherpuria worked with his father Baleshwar Rai, who ran an army canteen in the cantonment area. Unhappy with a meagre income, he moved to Gujarat in 1999 and got a job with a restaurant in Ahmedabad as a waiter.
He went from waiting tables to managing and eventually owning the same restaurant within a few years. “He fell in love with the daughter of the restaurant owner and they married. That is what changed his life,” a second police source said.
Sherpuria’s wife Kanchan comes from an influential business family in Gujarat that owned petrochemical industries, hotels, restaurants and had political connections.
According to police sources, this is when Sherpuria was introduced to the political circle including leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“The connections of his wife’s family gave Sherpuria a playing field from where he started hobnobbing with politicians, portraying himself as a social entrepreneur,” the source said. “This is when he also ventured into the business of petrochemicals and took over some of his wife’s companies and also floated some of his own ventures.”
The ventures included companies such as Bhagwati Remedies, Rai Corporation Private Limited, Kashi Farm Fresh Private limited, Kandla Energy and Chemicals Private Limited with liabilities of over Rs 350 crore, according to the UP Police.
“His wife, who claims to be an alumna of Harvard Business School, is very well connected and was the president of Vishwa Mangalaya Sabha, a Nagpur-based organisation that claims to work towards reinstating Bharat to the position of Vishwa guru it once was,” the source said. “With her help, he came in contact with many RSS leaders and started going to their events.”
This is what helped Sherpuria build his profile. He got pictures clicked with senior political leaders, including Panchayati Raj minister Giriraj Singh, MSME, Education and Skill Development minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Ports minister Sarbananda Sonowal and UP minister Jitin Prasada, and put them over social media, police said.
He also hired a PR firm to make fan pages for himself, hired private security to build an impression that he is a VVIP, the source said.
Moreover, he would often donate money to small cricket clubs, sponsor events for media groups and also give money to start-ups as a “support fund” to garner goodwill and support, the source said.
“Sponsoring events, putting money in start-ups was a well thought out strategy. He would fund events of media houses, who would then call some MP or minister as their chief guest and Sherpuria would then share the stage with that politician and get pictures clicked,” the source said.
Besides small donations, he also sent funds to the BJP, the source added.
“Sherpuria lent Rs 25 lakh to now J&K Governor Manoj Sinha before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He has also lent smaller amounts for political rallies and events and made contacts in the political circle. Which politician would refuse funds from a businessman? This is what worked for him,” the source said.
Explaining his modus operandi, a third source said, “He would send expensive gifts to bureaucrats to make initial contact and then make small requests. He would also throw big names at their meetings. When the bureaucrat would google him, he would see his pictures with the top leadership on his social media page and get convinced about his credentials,” the source said.
“This is how many bureaucrats got convinced of his association with politicians and would often oblige him.”
According to the source, Sherpuria became a trouble-shooter as many senior officers approached him for requests such as transfers and postings. “They were of the view that he is close to the leadership and would help them. In exchange, they would pay him in cash and kind.”
The source said such was his reach that his foundation, YREF, which is now under probe, has retired IAS and IPS and armed forces officers on its advisory board. While one is a retired CBI officer, another is an IAS officer who was also found connected with alleged conman Kiran Patel arrested from Srinagar earlier this year.
Lutyens’ bungalow & web of shell companies
Companies that Sherpuria started after he got married soon became bankrupt and he had to wrap up his operation from Gujarat and shift to Delhi in 2015, a third source said.
According to the source, Sherpuria shifted to a house in Gurgaon and started shell companies in the name of his brother, wife and nephew.
However, to be close to the political circle, he needed an influential address. That is when he approached his father for help.
His father, who worked at the army canteen in Assam, was in touch with an army captain who had an ancestral property on Lodhi Road, the source said.
“They have rented out this 4-5 acre property to a rider’s club in Delhi and is popular as the Delhi Riding Club, behind Safdarjung Road. The army officer agreed to give the front portion of the bungalow to Sherpuria to live in and this is how he found an influential address at no price,” the source said.
According to the source, Sherpuria spent over Rs 25 lakh to renovate the house and started living there. Although the said bungalow was on Lodhi Road, he wrote his address as “1, Beside Race Course, Safdarjung Rd” to deceive people, and this is where he held most of his meetings, the source said.
“He would hold poojas at his residence and invite politicians and bureaucrats. Whoever came to meet him, he would also ask them to purchase his books. In his recent bank statement, we have seen that he sold his book on water conservation to many such bureaucrats at Rs 2,200 each,” the source said.
It was in 2019, that Sherpuria opened YREF, which organises “youth-oriented and employment generation” programmes based on the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ theme in Ghazipur.
“The website of this foundation talks of helping the poor, and generation of employment among other things. It received donations in crores from different industrialists. This foundation is now under investigation,” the source said.
During investigation, it was found that Sherpuria allegedly created over 56 companies, now under investigation, under dummy directors in which he pumped in money as “start-up support” to launder money.
“He gave lakhs of rupees to these companies in the name of start-up funds to give them a boost, but these are all shell companies that belong to him. This was done with a purpose to launder money and evade taxes,” the third source said.
A separate investigation has also been started by the Enforcement Directorate in this regard, the source added.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)