Rudrapur: Police on Monday arrested the third main suspect in a scam targeting BJP MLAs in Uttarakhand. The suspect was caught in Delhi by Rudrapur police and a Special Operations Group.
The scam involved calling MLAs while pretending to be Jai Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah offering cabinet positions in exchange for three crore rupees.
Rudrapur MLA Shiv Arora received such a call on February 13. The caller claimed cabinet expansion was coming soon and Arora's name was on the minister list. Arora grew suspicious and reported the incident to police on February 16.
Two other MLAs - Ranipur's Adesh Chauhan and Nainital's Sarita Arya - received similar calls.
Police identified three suspects in the scheme. Two were already arrested - one in Rudrapur and another in Delhi. The third suspect, Gauravnath, was finally caught near Delhi's Karkar Duma Court.
The three friends - Uvaish, Priyanshu Pant, and Gauravnath - reportedly wanted money for a luxurious lifestyle including clubs and drugs. They found MLA phone numbers online and researched them on Wikipedia. Their plan included threats of defamation if the initial scam failed.
Gauravnath allegedly learned the scam method while previously jailed in Delhi for a different fraud case. The group targeted MLAs in multiple states including Manipur, Odisha, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand.
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