KALPETTA: Pulpally police arrested two members of a gang of four who duped forest officials under the pretext that they were officers in the Prime Minister’s Office. Thiruvananthapuram natives Rajesh Puthenveedu, 34, and Praveen Vadakkethil, 27, were caught on Friday from their residences in Thiruvananthapuram. On July 25 this year, Rajesh and Praveen along with Deepak P Chand and M Girish, under the pretext of being security personnel of the Prime Minister, stayed at the Vettathur watch tower in Chethalayam forest range. Forest officials delivered food free of cost and arranged for a watcher for the safety of the gang.
The watch tower is guarded by a temporary forest watcher. “The gang members came to Vettathur watch tower for sightseeing and told us that they are staff of the PM’s office in Delhi. They were well dressed and their mannerism and speaking style were convincing.
Often they used to make calls to Delhi pretending that they were speaking to other officials in the PM office,” said K P Abdul Samad, Chethalayam forest range officer. They were treated with respect by forest officials and the residents of nearby tribal colony. Even the deputy forest ranger also accompanied the gang. Assuming that the persons were from the Prime Minister’s Office, some of the colony residents had requested the group to arrange facilities for building a road to Vettathur.
The group spent three days in the watch tower. The intelligence wing of the police learned from locals that the gang was staying at the Watch Tower and during further investigation it was found that they were fraudsters. Later based on the complaint of the deputy forest ranger, Pulppally police filed a case against the cheaters under Sections 419 and 420 of IPC.
“The gang is based in Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram area. They had cheated many people and swindled money from them. Once they had disguised as Army officers and collected money from people offering jobs in military services,” said Shaiju P L, SHO, Pulppally police station. The police have intensified a search for Deepak P Chand and M Girish, who were part of the gang.