Nagpur: Conman Sadiq Qureshi was not only extorting substantial sums of money from railway officials but they were also covering his expenses of stays at luxurious five-star hotels in Nagpur city and flight tickets. The ongoing investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Nagpur uncovered a web of corruption and misconduct within the railway system, a report in a local English daily said.
Sadiq Qureshi was apprehended by the CBI on November 2, 2023, after attempting to extort money from a Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer of Central Railway in Nagpur by posing as a PA of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of CBI Nagpur during the extortion attempt. The investigation into this case further revealed that Qureshi had established a nefarious rapport with several railway officials especially within the Engineering and Mechanical Department. He falsely claimed to be privy to ‘secret inquiries’ being conducted by the CBI against railway officials to win their trust, the report said.
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Tuesday 21 Jan. 2025
As a result, some officials were covering his expenses. They paid for his stays at luxurious five star hotels in Nagpur city and even arranged flight tickets for him through a travel agent active in train ticket booking. Sources suggest that in August of this year, Qureshi spent three days in a five-star hotel and the bill was paid by a senior official from the engineering department.
The investigation further exposes that at least six senior railway officials were closely associated with Qureshi and they will likely face questioning by the CBI in the near future.
According to the report, the conman Sadiq Qureshi managed to extort more than Rs 24 lakh from three senior officials of the Indian Railways in Nagpur by posing as the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The report said that Qureshi was known to carry a file containing First Investigation Reports (FIRs) filed by the CBI in Nagpur over the past five to six years. His tactic was convincing enough that he managed to deceive the government officials despite his previous dismissal from service on fraud charges. Before adopting this deceptive role, he had worked as a labour assistant and later briefly as a Central Minister’s PA.
The report claimed that since 2019, Qureshi had been visiting railway offices in Nagpur, Chandrapur, Wardha, Gondia and representing himself as the PA to the DIG of CBI. He would present the file of FIRs to further bolster his claim and he even had bogus visiting cards to support his claim. His targets primarily consisted of government officials who had faced CBI investigations on charges of corruption. Even those who had been cleared of charges in court were not safe from his extortion attempts, the official claimed.
The report further said that Qureshi extorted Rs 12 lakh from a senior railway official, while another official paid Rs 7 lakh and another paid Rs 5 lakh to Qureshi this year.
