Lucknow:

The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested a notorious criminal for allegedly impersonating the chief minister’s secretary and duping government officials over the phone, officials said.

In a statement, the STF said Vivek Sharma alias Bantu Chaudhary, who used to dupe administrative officials and the general public by making fake phone calls in the name of the CM’s Secretary, was arrested in Basti district.

According to police sources, Vivek confessed that a few days ago, in order to cheat the district magistrate and chief development officer of Basti, he called on their official numbers and introduced himself as the secretary of the chief minister.

It was also found that Vivek’s mobile number, in the mobile application ‘True-Caller’, appeared as “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath”.

A case has been registered against him under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 384 (punishment for extortion) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the IPC in Basti’s Kotwali police station.

Several cases have been registered against him in various police stations of Aligarh, Balrampur, Mathura, Kanpur Nagar and Hardoi districts on the charges of fraud among others, the STF said in the statement. Vivek is being questioned.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

The Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday arrested two men wanted in a drugs case in Maharashtra while trying to slip to Nepal.

Abhishek Bilas Balakwade and Bhushan Anil Patil, involved in a case related to the recovery of drugs worth Rs 300 crore in Maharashtra, were arrested by the STF in a joint operation with the Pune Crime Branch of Maharashtra Police.

The two were arrested from Bahraich turn in Nagar Kotwali area of Barabanki district, an STF release issued here said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Pune, Sunil Tambe, who was part of the operation, had earlier visited the STF in Lucknow to apprise it of the presence of the main accused in the 150 kg-MDMA seizure in Maharashtra, with a warning that they may be trying to escape to Nepal.

According to STF, both men were wanted in many other drug trafficking cases in Pune and Nashik districts.

The two were also allegedly part of the conspiracy to get Maharashtra’s biggest drug mafia Lalit Patil escape police custody on October 2.

It was revealed during interrogation that Bhushan Anil Patil is the younger brother of Lalit Patil and Abhishek Bilas is the manager of Lalit Patil’s drugs network.

The two told police that they, along with Lalit Patil, had been manufacturing MDMA since 2014 and supplying the banned drug for use in pubs and rave parties.

The gang had set up factories first in Aurangabad and then in Pune and Nashik to manufacture the narcotic, popularly known as Ecstasy.

The accused after legal proceedings were handed over to the Pune team, the release said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

Twenty-five years after leading India’s first special task force (Uttar Pradesh STF) in gunning down gangster Sriprakash Shukla, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rajesh Pandey unveiled his first book, ‘Operation Bazooka: The True Story Behind the Hunt for the Most Dreaded UP Gangster’ in Bhopal.

As a founding member of the UPSTF, Mr Pandey was pivotal in the takedown of Shukla and his associates, Anuj Pratap Singh and Sudhir Tripathi, during a 1998 showdown in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram.

Co-written with journalist and media studies professor Rakesh Goswami, the 192-page book delves into the brutal history of gang wars in eastern UP and Bihar, leading up to Shukla’s death in 1998. The retired officer is credited with taking down more than 72 criminals in UP.

It was following rumours of Shukla having accepted a “supari (contract)” to kill then UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh that the STF was set up. During an informal chat with NDTV, the author Mr Pandey said, “Shukla used to have an AK-47. It was perhaps the first time when the use of AK-47 by a UP gang was reported.”

The gangster was shot dead in a fierce encounter in September 1998 in Ghaziabad district’s Indirapuram.

This is the first book penned by the ex-IPS officer; he retired a few years ago IG of Bareilly.

The UP STF recently turned 25. It recently came into limelight as they played a crucial role in demolishing the empire of gangster Atiq Ahmed.