Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested Anoop Chaudhary, a member of the Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee in Delhi, for allegedly swindling crores from the public. He has been accused of exploiting official privileges to dupe people on the pretext of helping them with government-related matters.
Chaudhary, who is from Ayodhya and claims to be a member of the BJP, was arrested Monday night. He also claims to be a member of the consultative committee of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), but ThePrint could not independently confirm this.
According to an STF statement, Chaudhary had appointed an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for himself and even managed to get a gunner from the Ghaziabad Police. These tactics were allegedly employed to bolster his credibility as a high-ranking official.
Chaudhary’s YouTube channel has a collage of his pictures with top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, from public events. There are also photos of his purported one-on-one meetings with state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CM Keshav Maurya, and BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj.
The statement from the UP STF noted that it had been getting information “for a long time” about a “gang” that was engaging in organised crime “in the name of taking the works of the respected Prime Minister to the public”.
The statement added: “During information gathering, it was found that Anoop Chaudhary was resorting to fraud with the public by claiming to be a member of the central railways ministry and has so far, collected crores of rupees by fraud which is leading to the government’s image being spoiled amid general public.”
The STF has lodged a First Information Report (FIR) in the Cantt police station of Ayodhya against Chaudhary and his driver Feroz Alam, who was also arrested, under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy).
The Ghaziabad Police has also lodged an FIR against him. In a video statement Wednesday, Ghaziabad additional SP Nipun Agarwal said they got the information that Chaudhary has been sending mails to Ghaziabad SSP and senior police officers on fake letterheads and has a gunner on temporary basis since 2020. Agarwal said that the gunner has been suspended because “he left the district without informing senior police officers”.
STF sources told ThePrint that Chaudhary has a total of nine cases lodged against him in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan. They added that the Jaipur unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also filed a chargesheet against him in a cheating case.
Meanwhile, the BJP has sought to distance itself from Chaudhary.
UP BJP state spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said to ThePrint that he did not know about Chaudhary. He also said that it was possible that the latter was making false claims about being a member of the railways committee as well as the FCI.
However, Northern Railways superintendent Bir Singh confirmed to ThePrint that Anoop Chaudhary was a member of the committee. Singh also said that Chaudhary’s name was suggested by the Railway Board.
ThePrint contacted AGM (coordination) Charan Narayan Jaibhaye, FCI, Lucknow who said he could confirm Chaudhary’s association with the organisation only after checking his details.
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Who is Anoop Chaudhary?
In his social media accounts, Anoop Chaudhary projects himself as a BJP functionary with extensive connections.
Shortly after his arrest, an old interview featuring Chaudhary vent viral.
In a video from March 2023 on the YouTube channel Lallantop, Chaudhary claimed that people approached him for assistance with matters like transfers, postings, and tender approvals after he joined the BJP. However, he proclaimed that such things did not happen in the BJP.
He also asserted in this interview that he had been a part of the Samajwadi Party until 2017, serving as the vice president of its youth wing. According to him, he joined the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah that year.
महाठग और BJP नेता अनूप चौधरी कितना झुट्ठा है।@TheLallantop के इंटरव्यू में कह रहा है कि- हमसे कई लोगों ने काम करवाने की सिफारिश की लेकिन मैंने मना कर दिया।
सच ये है कि- ये ठग लोगों से टेंडर-ठेके के नाम पर करोड़ों ऐंठता था।
इस 15 हजार के ईनामी ठग को आज UP STF ने पकड़ा है। pic.twitter.com/asmwBgZepI
— Govind Pratap Singh | GPS (@govindprataps12) October 24, 2023
He claimed he had a food processing company with plants in Ayodhya and Lakhimpur.
An STF officer told ThePrint that they would write to the Northern Railways and FCI, Lucknow, to verify Chaudhary’s claimed positions.
How did alleged ‘con’ work?
Chaudhary devised an elaborate scheme, according to the STF statement.
He appointed an OSD who would allegedly send out forged letters on his behalf to district police and administration officials to avail government protocol benefits usually reserved for ministers.
In the course of his visits to various places, the statement added, Chaudhary engaged with the general public, influencing them by “flaunting protocol benefits”. He would then allegedly extract “advance money” from them under the guise of facilitating government-related tasks.
Acting on a tip that Chaudhary would be arriving in Ayodhya for a religious visit Monday, an STF team intercepted his vehicle near the road adjacent to the Circuit House.
Around 10:35 pm, when the vehicle was halted, a head constable purportedly from the Ghaziabad police disembarked and presented himself as Chaudhary’s ‘official gunner’.
Chaudhary, the statement noted, deceitfully enlisted this ‘gunner’ under the pretext of extending government initiatives and schemes to the public.
The STF statement said that another person accompanying Chaudhary introduced himself as Satyendra Verma.
“(Verma) informed that Anoop had befriended him at an airport and requested him to help form a company to provide chopper services for darshan of religious places,” the statement said.
For Chaudhary’s Ayodhya visit, his ‘OSD’ Shrinivas Narala had allegedly written to the district’s DM, SSP, and medical officer, requesting lodging at the Circuit House and local police security.
“Anoop Chaudhary informed (the STF officers) that he is a member of the zonal railway users consultative committee, northern railways, and the FCI, Lucknow…he appointed Narala as his private OSD through whom he would issue forged letters prepared on fake letter pads to government officials of UP and other states via email and take benefit of government protocol,” the statement said.
It further noted that Chaudhary had also used forged letters to avail of official benefits ahead of a recent trip to Chennai, as well as for a proposed visit to Etawah this month.
Cases across states
Chaudhary had opened a private company with some associates, but after it shut down, several aggrieved persons lodged cases against him, the STF statement said.
He has as many as nine cases of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, criminal intimidation, using assault or criminal force, and voluntarily causing hurt against him.
While five cases are lodged in different UP districts, two are pending in Uttarakhand and the remaining two have been lodged by the Jaipur Police and the Jaipur unit of the CBI respectively.
“The Jaipur CBI filed a chargesheet against him on 22 December, 2020, in a case under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 120-b (criminal conspiracy),” a UP STF officer said to ThePrint.
Also, the Uttarakhand Police announced a reward Rs 15,000 for any information on Chaudhary in two cases of cheating, forgery, and criminal breach of trust lodged in Khatima and Haldwani.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)