A man posing as an Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer allegedly stole a travel agent’s car on the pretext of catching a terrorist and cheated him of Rs 7 lakh. The accused used the vehicle for four years without paying its owner anything, and recently fled with it. According to the police, 39-year-old Dhirendra Vikram Singh, who runs Sun City Travels in Powai, went to Mumbra four years ago to meet a friend who was injured in an accident. There he met a man who introduced himself as an ATS officer, Rajesh Kumar Upadhyay. “Upadhyay took my car claiming he needed it to catch a terrorist. Initially, he said that he would use the car and just pay for the diesel, but after I insisted, we agreed on the rent charges. But he kept using the car and never paid anything, so after four years he owed me Rs 3 lakh as rent,” said the complainant in his statement to police. After Singh stopped giving him the vehicle until he got payment, Upadhyay gave him a cheque of Rs 50,000. “I went to a bank and submitted a cheque, I was then informed by the cashier that Upadyay didn’t have sufficient amount in his bank account to clear the cheque. When I inquired, Upadhyay alleged that his wife was not well and as he needed money urgently, he withdrew cash,” said Singh in his statement to police. Singh tried contacting him for several days but was unable to reach him on the phone. When Singh went to his residential address, he learnt that Upadhyay didn’t live there. “I realised that I was duped after I went to the Thane ATS unit, where they informed me that no one with the name Upadhyay has ever worked with there,” said Singh. Upadhyay has been booked under sections 170 (impersonating a public servant), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code. For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App

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