The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday arrested a fraudster from Haryana who along with his family members was presumed to be "killed" in a road accident on Batote-Kishtwar national highway on December 20.
Identified as Manjeet Singh, a resident of the Bhaderwah area of the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir hatched a conspiracy to evade loans from different banks and private persons by faking a road accident.
After their vehicle bearing registration number 6311-JK06A plunged into the river Chenab, it was reported that Manjeet Singh along with his wife and minor daughter were washed in the water.
"While recovering the vehicle from the accident site, we got suspicious after observing the condition of the car recovered from the river Chenab after the mishap", Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Doda Abdul Qayoom told media persons.
Although police roped in teams of the Army and SDRF to intensify search operations in the river Chenab to trace the missing family, cops also started an investigation to inquire about the background of Manjeet Singh.
As per evidence, it was presumed that Manjeet Singh son of Pritam Singh, age 31 years, his wife namely Sonia Devi, and a six-year-old were travelling in the said car from Bhaderwah to Jammu. However, none of them was traced, dead or alive.
Cops get suspicious after getting information about Manjeet's financial position
During the investigation, other aspects of the missing Manjeet Singh and his family were also enquired like financial condition, etc. and it transpired that Manjeet had taken a large amount of loan, approximately Rs 30 lakhs to establish his business from different banks and private lenders.
Moreover, the financial condition of Manjeet Singh was also not good, and thus with the usage of CCTV footage, the technical team of cyber cell Doda was also put to the task after getting the technical lead.
SSP Doda constituted a team led by in-charge Police Post Bhalla Sub-Inspecctor Ankush Kumar Sharma under the supervision of SHO Bhaderwah Inspector Jatinder Singh to search for the missing person in Punjab/Haryana and after hectic efforts with the help of Haryana Police trio were located and found alive in village Abhaypura, Phase-1, Panchkula, Haryana and have been brought back within 24 hours.
How did Manjeet Singh fake his accident?
On December 20, Doda Police received information that one car bearing registration number JK 06A- 6311 was plugged into Chenab River near Gadsoo Doda on NHW-244. On the receipt of this information, Case FIR No 182/2022, U/S 279, 304-A IPC was registered in Police Station Bhaderwah.
Immediately after the receipt of information about the accident, SSP Doda, Deputy Commissioner Doda, ASP Bhaderwah, and other senior officers and rescue teams were made to rush to the site of the accident and pressed men and machinery to launch a rescue operation.
During the inspection of the spot, the police team found one broken number plate of an accidental vehicle two ID cards, driving license, and an eShraman card of namely Manjeet Singh son of Pritam Singh resident of village Sengoi, Bhalara Bhaderwah, and one purse from the spot where the accidental vehicle was rolled down to river Chenab.
With the use of the recovery vehicle, the accidental vehicle was retrieved from Chenab River after the hectic efforts of rescue teams during operation in which boats of SDRF were also utilized but no dead body /luggage was found inside the said accidental vehicle.
