Aliases & bag of tricks to dupe gullible ‘Charlies’ — how ‘conmen’ like Sherpuria, Kiran Patel thrive

ThePrint spoke to police officers to understand what makes a conman. Honey trap-like tactics, use of media & social media, posing as string-pullers with ruling party all part of tactics.

Image: Soham Sen/ThePrint

New Delhi: Abhishek Pratap Singh was a mover and shaker — everybody knew that. He had a vast network, hobnobbed with ministers and had worked for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for the past three years. So, when he texted Singh, the IAS officer had little reason to suspect that this luminary was being detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police and they had custody of his phone.

The officer was texting to tell Singh — known as ‘AP Sir’ — that he’d lodged a police complaint against a certain builder. This was after an FIR had been registered on the builder’s own complaint that Singh had cheated him of Rs 20 lakh, sources said. The police had convinced the builder to get the FIR registered because most of the people allegedly conned by Singh were higher-ups in the administration and none would come forward to lodge a complaint against him. 

Soon after the FIR was lodged in September this year, the police picked up Singh, whose real name is Santosh Singh, for questioning from Kanpur. Later the police arrested him on charges of impersonation, fraud and cheating. 

The PMO wasn’t the only notch on Singh’s CV — allegedly, he has also pretended to be an official of the Union home ministry and of the Intelligence Bureau, and was very close to a top official of the UP government and a former state police chief. He’s part of a whole rogues’ gallery of alleged conmen with similar MOs that includes some notorious names. Think Kiran Patel, Sanjay Rai ‘Sherpuria’, Sukesh Chandrashekhar. Not to mention those who may still be plying their trade, pulling the wool over the eyes of  unsuspecting victims, often senior civil servants and police officers. 

ThePrint spoke to senior police officers to understand what makes a conman and what helps them thrive. 

In brief, according to the officers, conmen lock on to gullible potential victims — ‘Charlies’  — and unleash their arsenal, ranging from catchy aliases, honey traps and expensive gifts to dropping the biggest of names and posing as string-pullers in the ruling party. Astute use of media events and social media and a focus on granular details to craft an identity help them succeed, as does a stunning lack of responsibility in the corridors of power. 

Here’s their skillset: They’re sharp and calculating, with exceptional communication skills — and they can spot weaknesses real quick. 

Charlies & women

In police lingo, ‘Charlie’ is a euphemism for someone who is extremely gullible. It’s these Charlies — and there are a lot of them — who are the main factor enabling conmen to thrive, say police officers and government officials.

“Duniya mein Charliyon ki kami nahi hai, bas usko banane wala chahiye (There’s no shortage of Charlies in this world, there just need to be people who make them Charlies),” a source said. 

First, the Charlie is identified. Often, the target is a senior civil servant or police officer, as duping such people helps the conmen build their aura and create a fertile space. They can easily identify potential victims — they know which officers are seeking an empanelment or a transfer, or needs help with some business dealings, and so on — and then, they make their move.

Here’s how: “Koi bhi kaam ho, mein falana se mulaqaat karwa dunga (Whatever work you need to be done, I will arrange for you to meet XYZ).” In this case, the ‘XYZ’ is inevitably someone with connections to the Prime Minister’s Office, and often a cabinet minister. 

“There is no end to Charlies. It is very easy for a conman to throw out big names and make them believe that they are some kind of string-pullers in the system higher up,” a source said. 

What makes it so easy? According to another source, “There is an extreme lack of responsibility in the corridors of power. These government officials have nothing to lose so they would prefer to appease anyone who says he or she has a strong hold in the system. By using their names, getting photos clicked with them, taking their names, meeting them for tea, coffee and lunches, giving them expensive things, these conmen gain more access and build their credibility.” 

One of the oldest tricks in the book, senior officers said, is an approach similar to the classic honey trap. Allegedly, some conmen even ‘supply’ women to the officials they’re trying to dupe. 

“For rapport building, these conmen often talk about the models and other beautiful women in their life. Singh had multiple girlfriends and one of them is a student at a medical college. They all claim they are in touch with top models,” a source said.

“Then, there are things like donations before elections and giving expensive gifts like a Pashmina shawl for the officer’s wife, imported liquor, club passes etc.”

Sources said that while these conned officials sometimes refuse to heed the demands of even their local MLAs, they end up listening to everything the conman tells them and comply very easily, with no background checks. 

Narrating another instance, a source said, “When we had initially got the tipoff on Santosh Singh, a local inspector was sent to his house. That inspector got an earful from a senior police officer, asking him how he dared to question Singh”. 

Big names, security, media & granular detail

“One can say that the conman is very charismatic and charming and very good at deceiving. But that is not the case. People are blinded by the display of power, that’s all this is,” said an officer. 

A paradigmatic example is Anoop Chaudhary, who was arrested in Ayodhya earlier this month. Allegedly posing as a politician and a civil servant, Chaudhary had managed to get VIP security — paid for by the government — at least 19 times in the past three years after he wrote letters to senior Ghaziabad police and government officers. Cheques worth Rs 290 crore were recovered from him at the time of his arrest, officers said. 

In this case, an additional superintendent of police heads the VIP cell that is responsible for providing security, based on threat perception and by virtue of the concerned person’s post. 

Ghaziabad Deputy Commissioner of Police Nipun Agarwal told ThePrint: “The orders come from higher up. One gunner has been suspended because he left with Chaudhary to Ayodhya. As per protocol, he isn’t supposed to leave the boundaries of Ghaziabad.” 

Chaudhary — who faces at least 10 cases of cheating, criminal conspiracy and fraud across cities — allegedly had a grab-bag of identities he could dip into: an official of the railway ministry or the Food Corporation of India, the Maharashtra BJP’s state-in-charge and a member of the party’s Scheduled Caste Morcha, a former adviser to the Central Board of Film Certification, and a former member of Uttar Pradesh’s Film Development Council, among others. 

To complete the picture, Chaudhary allegedly appointed his own ‘officer on special duty’, who would inform government officials about his schedule and meetings.

His use of the media and social media is also emblematic: In May this year, he was invited to a media event in UP, ‘UP Tak’, where the anchor introduced him as a “dynamic youth leader” and youth icon of the BJP. Chaudhary, who also claimed to be the founder of a company, CSP Foods, was also interviewed by Lallantop in March this year on the food processing industry. 

And when Chaudhary shared this interview on his Instagram page, he tagged the official accounts of none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and the BJP.  He has 1 million followers on the social media platform, where he regularly posted pictures and videos of the prime minister. In one visual from another media event, ‘Mumbai Tak’, he is seen with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. 

Chaudhary’s alleged modus operandi is typical in many ways. 

For instance, Gujarat ‘conman’ ‘Dr’ Kiran J. Patel, arrested in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year, allegedly told senior officials that he was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP, and would wear several hats — sometimes a businessman, sometimes a web designer. Patel was also given full security coverage during his third Kashmir trip. At the time of his arrest, a PMO visiting card was allegedly found on him. His designation: ‘Additional Director (Strategy and Communications), PMO’. 

Another example, also from Gujarat, is Viraj Ashwin Patel alias Viraj Shah, who was arrested in April this year. He had allegedly posed as Home Minister Amit Shah’s nephew and an official of the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). 

Sanjay Rai ‘Sherpuria’, who was arrested by the UP Special Task Force in April, allegedly claimed he had “links” to the PMO, used this to extort crores from industrialists and siphoned the money into shell companies. Allegedly, Sherpuria also acted as a troubleshooter and fixer for top officials — so much so that he also managed to entrap CBI officers. 

He also had several social media fan pages managed by a hired PR firm where he posted pictures with Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. 

Most conmen also make it a point to focus on granular details when building an identity, say officials. For example, one of the tricks allegedly used by Sherpuria to dupe his victims was a WiFi network on his mobile phone called ‘PMO’. 

A kickstart

The rise of a conman is simple — it starts with one strike at a time. With time, they gather more confidence, along with access to the networks of power. 

According to sources, conmen mostly belong to humble backgrounds and are often school dropouts. 

Sukesh Chandrashekhar’s — alias Balaji, alias Shekhar Reddy — father, Vijayan Chandrashekhar, was a mechanic, salesman of automobile parts and contractor. Sukesh was reportedly first arrested in 2007 at the age of 17 for allegedly duping a businessman of over Rs 1 crore, and had at the time claimed to be friends with the son of then Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. 

Sherpuria started off as a waiter at restaurants in Gujarat. He then married the daughter of an influential business family in the state that owned petrochemical industries, hotels and restaurants, and had political connections. This gave him insight into the state’s political circles, police sources had told ThePrint earlier. 

The first case against Chaudhary is from 2018 in Jaipur for allegedly cheating a businessman of Rs 58 lakh. Over the years, several other cases were registered against Chaudhary for allegedly duping people in the name of a fixed deposit scheme. 

Viraj Patel, on the other hand, had allegedly been pulling cons for at least the past seven years. He was arrested in 2016 by the Ujjain police for allegedly duping one Naresh Sharma by claiming to be then BJP president Amit Shah’s nephew. 

(Edited by Rohan Manoj)