BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh STF arrested Uttarakhand man for aiding Bhopal-based dental surgeon Dr Chandresh Shukla and Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Kuldip Vaghela to dupe Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon by posing as union home minister Amit Shah over the phone.
The 35-year-old man dropped out of medical college a decade ago for love was arrested by MPSTF recently from Hardiwar town of the hill state.
According to additional DG (ADG-MP STF) Ashok Awasthi, Daksh Agarwal, earned big bucks by making cell-phone users having VIP numbers surrender their numbers in return for money and then got the same surrendered VIP number re-issued to individuals, who paid him up to Rs one lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh.
After leaving medical studies, Daksh started living with a girlfriend and operated business of providing SIM cards and other services.
“It’s during the course of such business that Daksh got in touch with the Bhopal-based dental surgeon Dr Chandresh Shukla. Subsequently, Dr Shukla got a VIP number from Daksh after paying Rs one lakh. Daksh also helped the dental surgeon inactivation of Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR) facility in Andhra Pradesh against the SIM card issued from Guwahati in April 2019,” said Awasthi.
A phone number can be withheld which stops the recipient from viewing the identity of the caller. A number can be withheld during digital, analogue or voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone calls. The process of withholding a number is also called Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR). Whenever calls are made from such numbers, the recipient of the call usually sees “private number” or “unknown number” on his cell-phone display.
The same postpaid number having the CLIR facility was allegedly used by Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Kuldip Vaghela (who posed as Home Minister Amit Shah) for attempting to facilitate dental surgeon friend Dr Chandresh Shukla’s appointment as state’s medical university vice-chancellor in January 2020. Their plot, however, had failed and the duo – Shukla and Vaghela – were arrested by MPSTF on January 10.
“He (Daksh) is presently in our custody and his grilling has brought to the fore that he had duped a Member of Parliament (MP) from Telangana. The alleged duping of the Telangana MP too pertained to a VIP number SIM card only. We’re in touch with Telangana police in connection with that case,” said ADG-MPSTF.
Agarwal, arrested from Haridwar, is also accused of duping a Telangana MP through SIM card fraud.