Lucknow: They dressed in saffron robes and sunglasses, officially changed their names to add the ‘Yogi’ prefix, and one of them even claimed he will be the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Harsh Chauhan and Kedar Nath Agrahari changed their names to ‘Yogi Harsh’ and ‘Yogi Kedar Nath’ last year. Then they allegedly got a fake MSME called ‘Yogi Corporation of India’ registered on a state government portal, and went on to amass lakhs of rupees by duping close to 90 people including at least one BJP office-bearer.
After zeroing in on their targets, they would promise to make their victims regional heads of their enterprise, or assure them of getting any government-related work done, in exchange for money.
They even claimed that all work done by the ‘Yogi Corporation of India’ was “supervised by the CM”.
Chauhan and Agrahari were arrested Sunday, two days after an FIR was registered against them on the complaint of BJP’s Kanpur mandal secretary Ranjana Singh, who was allegedly duped of Rs 1,100 on the pretext of making her a district in-charge of the enterprise.
The FIR against the two was registered at Gorakhpur’s Cantt police station under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable will, security, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery intending to harm reputation of a party), 471 (using a forged document or electronic as genuine), 504 (intentional insult to provoke peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).
‘Yogi Corporation of India ID cards’ recovered from the accused carried photographs of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Guru Gorakhnath. They even carried a Government of India registration number of the ‘Yogi Corporation of India’.
According to the Gorakhpur police, the accused also had a WhatsApp group called the ‘Yogi group’, which had over a thousand people including BJP workers and activists as members. On this group, the accused would allegedly ask members to submit their government-related grievances, promise redressal of the same in return for money. They even claimed to help people meet Adityanath at his weekly janta darbars (meetings with public).
Speaking to ThePrint, Gorakhpur Superintendent of Police (City) Krishan Kumar Bishnoi said that the accused would take applications from members of the public who wanted to attend such meetings and at least 60 such applications have been recovered from their possession.
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Meet the fraudsters
Originally from Maharajganj and Ghaziabad respectively, Kedar Nath and Harsh Chauhan had, according to the police, met through a religious preacher in Lucknow last year and started an MSME in April this year.
Sometime in 2022, they had changed their names to ‘Yogi Harsh’ and ‘Yogi Kedar Nath’ after signing a notarized document to this effect.
“Kedar Nath has duped several persons in his own village. He knew a katha vachak who introduced him to Harsh Chauhan during one of his events. Harsh is a Class 12 pass and was serving as a bank mitra in Ghaziabad. Kedar Nath is a Class 8 pass. Harsh suggested to him that they start an MSME and get it registered. They got the ‘Yogi Corporation of India’ registered on the government’s MSME registration portal and started contacting people to expand their reach,” said SP Bishnoi.
He added that the police have so far discovered two bank accounts of the accused.
“One doesn’t have any money but there is a second bank account to which transactions worth Rs 4-5 lakh have been made,” he said.
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‘Next CM after Adityanath’
The duo allegedly contacted several BJP office-bearers and workers as well as activists across states including UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh etc. and offered them the posts of regional heads, district heads, consultants etc. of the ‘Yogi Corporation of India’.
Saher Naqvi, a lawyer and activist from Allahabad, told ThePrint that she was approached by Kedar Nath on Facebook in July.
“He (Kedar Nath) said that after Yogi Adityanath, Yogi Harsh will become the next CM. They claimed that they were associated with the Ram Rajya Parishad formed by Karpatri Maharaj. He offered to make me the legal consultant of the enterprise. I didn’t know much about the temple,” she said.
Naqvi added that Kedar Nath offered to meet her in the Allahabad High Court premises that same month and when they met, he was wearing saffron clothes and dark sunglasses.
“I am a fan of CM Yogi Adityanath and have posted reels and posts on Facebook about his work. Kedar Nath first influenced me by saying that he had seen my posts and liked them. He claimed that the functioning of the enterprise is being supervised by the CM and that the CM wants me to be associated with it. I was very happy and agreed. He demanded Rs 5,000 as fees which I transferred via PhonePe,” she further said.
While the police have recovered an ID card with Naqvi’s name — showing her designation as consultant for the ‘Yogi Corporation of India’ — from the possession of the accused, she said she was unaware of any such ID being issued in her name.
Kedar Nath and Harsh Chauhan also allegedly duped BJP office-bearers from different states by taking money from them in the name of making them regional heads of the enterprise.
One of them was BJP’s Kanpur mandal secretary Ranjana Singh, on whose police complaint they were booked and later arrested.
Speaking to ThePrint, Ranjana said that in November, she got to know about the Whatsapp ‘Yogi Group’ in which members of the public were “sharing their government-related grievances and their complaints were getting solved”.
“I got to know about this group where people would share their grievances and their problems will get resolved. I knew some of the members of the group and I too was added to it. After I got connected, Kedar Nath messaged me and informed me that they wanted to make me the district in-charge for the enterprise. Since I am socially and politically active, I agreed,” she said.
Ranjana added that on the Whatsapp group, the accused would post details of Adityanath’s daily programmes, schedules of his janta darbar meetings and the transfer of IAS and IPS officers.
She was subsequently issued an ID card as ‘district in-charge of the Yogi Corporation of India’, which had the names and contact numbers of ‘Yogi Harsh Nath and Yogi Kedar Nath’ as ‘director and CEO’ of the enterprise”. ThePrint has seen five ID cards issued by the accused to different persons from UP, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
“The details they would share would usually turn out to be correct, which is why people started believing in them. However, I got suspicious because of the address of the enterprise, which was shown to be Gorakhnath temple. I asked BJP office-bearers in Gorakhpur to check. When they confirmed that there is no such office in the temple, I informed our local Sachendi police station, which in turn informed the Gorakhpur police,” she said.
The accused also allegedly issued an ID card to Gujarat-based Kamal Kumar Chauhan, who was appointed as a “district in-charge” for the enterprise in Gujarat.
Speaking to ThePrint, Chauhan said that he got to know about the Whatsapp group from a local BJP worker.
“I provide training to engineers in handling coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and wanted to connect with the government hoping to get recognition. Two days after I joined the group, they offered to make me a district in-charge of the enterprise. Since Yogi ji has a big name in UP, I wanted to connect with them. They asked for my Aadhaar card and details which I provided, after which they issued an ID card to me,” he said.
Role of a journalist & a secretariat clerk
SP Bishnoi told ThePrint that the accused were arrested Sunday from near the Dharamshala area of Gorakhpur and sent to jail.
“Eighty-seven forged ID cards issued to different persons have been recovered from them. Names of a journalist and a clerk working in the UP secretariat in Lucknow too have come to fore in the case and they too will be arrested for being a part of their racket. The duo would claim to help complainants meet the CM in the janta darbar meetings and would take their applications,” he added.
Asked how the accused would have accurate details about the CM’s whereabouts and government transfers, the SP said that they were being helped by the journalist and the secretariat clerk.
“Kedar Nath would claim to be the BJP’s state general secretary and had forged an ID card to that effect,” he added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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