New Delhi: “There is a corruption case against you, if you pay up, I could make it disappear,” he would call and say to junior government officials in Bihar’s Gogri. Meanwhile, to those looking for jobs, he would say he could get them one in exchange for money. Even people booked in criminal cases would be told he could make the FIRs vanish in exchange for a sum.
That was how Manish Kumar Gupta rolled. Sometimes he said he was an IAS officer, sometimes a vigilance officer and other times an undercover agent working for none other than National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval.
The matter came to light when Gogri police station got a tip-off Saturday afternoon. The caller said that one Manish Kumar Gupta has been duping people posing as an IAS officer.
“On 8 August, we received a tip-off that one Manish Kumar Gupta uses a Government of India placard on his two private vehicles and tells people that he is an IAS officer,” read the FIR, accessed by the Print.
A team comprising Khagaria police and a District Investigation Unit (DIU) then raided his residence in Jamalpur Bazar for nearly eight hours. They learnt that Gupta was not just posing as an IAS but also as a “covert agent” under NSA Ajit Doval, said Khagaria Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhanu Pratap Singh.
“During questioning, the individual identified himself as Manish Kumar [alias Manish Kumar Gupta], son of Parmeshwar Gupta. He displayed an ID card on his mobile phone identifying him as ‘Manish Kumar, Central Vigilance Commission’ and claimed to be an undercover agent for NSA Ajit Doval; verification revealed these claims to be prima facie fake. He has been formally arrested, and further legal action is underway,” the SP added.
SP Singh further told The Print that initial investigation has revealed that the accused, along with several others operating in Bihar, other Indian states and the UK, were running a racket. “He would blackmail government officers by saying that he was a vigilance officer and if they pay up then the upcoming corruption case against them will go away,” he said, adding that he would tell people looking for government jobs that he “knew senior officers and could get them jobs in exchange for money”. The accused would also act as a mediator and settle cases in exchange for money in local police stations.
Tesla, pool, ‘Govt of India’ placards, assets worth Rs 100 crore
During the eight-hour raid, police recovered two luxury cars, including a driverless Tesla displaying the ‘Government of India placards’.
“Manish Gupta possesses assets worth over Rs 100 crore. The bungalow he occupied in Khagaria is a luxury property with a swimming pool and a private theatre and with more than 25 CCTV cameras,” the SP said.
The police also recovered 31 litres of foreign liquor of 29 brands like Hibiki Suntory Whisky, Talisker Dark Storm, Glenfiddich single malt, Indri and many other brands. Nine litres of beer were also recovered. “During the raid at least six Apple mobile phones, four Apple laptops, five iPads, a 4TB hard disk, 20 credit cards of different banks, eight debit cards, and four cheque books of different banks were found,” said a senior Bihar police officer aware of the matter.
The police also found two horns of a Swamp Deer (Barasingha) on display at Gupta’s residence. It is illegal to hunt Swamp Deer, a protected species listed under the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
The second officer told ThePrint that the police will seek assistance from the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) to evaluate his total assets. “All his assets have been generated from threats, fraud, or corruption. We are also getting information that he has property not only in Bihar but other states and abroad too.”
Two separate FIRs have been registered against the accused. In the first FIR, the accused has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections associated with furnishing false information, refusal to take an oath of honesty before a public servant, cheating, use of forged documents, cheating by personation and the Wildlife Protection Act.
A separate case has been lodged against him under sections of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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