The investigation into the fake IAS officer case in Jalandhar has uncovered several new details, police say the accused, Pooja Thakur, allegedly cheated many people by pretending to be a senior government officer and promising government jobs and the latest investigation has found that the Shimla address she had provided was fake, and even the name of her father mentioned in official documents was found to be false.
According to the police investigation, Pooja Thakur had claimed that she owned a luxury bungalow near Mashobra in Shimla, she allegedly told several people in Jalandhar that she wanted to sell the property and even shared photographs of the bungalow to convince them however, a special team of Jalandhar Police visited Shimla to verify the claim. During the investigation, the police found that the bungalow did not belong to the accused and that the property she claimed to own does not exist as described and police say the claim was part of her alleged fraud.
The investigation has also revealed large financial transactions linked to the accused, while checking bank records, police found that around ₹36 lakh had been deposited into a bank account opened in the name of her driver and when the driver was called for questioning, he reportedly told the police that he had no knowledge that such a large amount of money was passing through his account, according to the investigation, he was unaware that his account was allegedly being used for financial transactions connected to the fraud.
Police are now expanding the investigation beyond Punjab and officials are preparing to visit Delhi to search for another accused person who is believed to be the main mastermind behind the fraud network, according to police sources, the suspected boss of the accused is believed to be based in Delhi and raids are expected to be conducted there as investigators try to trace the larger network involved in the case.
The investigation has also brought the owner of a well-known restaurant on Jalandhar Heights Road under the scanner and according to police sources, transactions involving lakhs of rupees were allegedly routed through the restaurant owner's bank account, investigators may question the restaurant owner as part of the ongoing probe and police say they are collecting evidence to determine the role of every person connected to the financial transactions.
Police have also found that the accused allegedly cheated a temple priest in Model Town and according to the investigation, she gained the priest's trust and allegedly took ₹9 lakh from him by promising to get some work completed however, when the promised work was not done and the possibility of legal action increased, police say she allegedly cheated another person and used that money to return the priest's ₹9 lakh.
The investigation has also revealed an alleged attempt to settle another major fraud case and police said the accused had allegedly offered a large amount of money to the lawyer representing an NRI complainant, the NRI had claimed to have been cheated of ₹1.05 crore and according to police sources, the purpose of the settlement offer was to ensure that the name of the restaurant owner was not included in the complaint however, the lawyer reportedly refused the offer.
Police say Pooja Thakur allegedly presented herself as a senior officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs to gain the trust of victims and allegedly promised to arrange government jobs, including posts such as police inspector, sub-inspector and government doctor, to make her claims appear genuine, investigators say she created a fake website that closely resembled the official website of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
According to the police, the fake website was allegedly used to generate counterfeit appointment letters carrying fake government seals and forged signatures and these documents looked genuine and were allegedly shown to job seekers as proof that their appointments had been approved.
When police raided the accused's location at Jalandhar Heights and arrested her, they recovered around 200 fake appointment letters and according to investigators, these documents carried forged signatures and fake official stamps of government authorities, police believe the fake documents were prepared to convince victims that they had received genuine government job appointments.
The investigation is continuing, and police are examining financial records, bank accounts, digital evidence and the role of other people who may have been connected to the alleged fraud, officials are also trying to identify more victims and determine the full extent of the scam.
