New Delhi:
A 31-year-old pimp, who was also allegedly involved in a number of cases of vehicle theft and cheating by using fake demand drafts to buy luxury cars, was arrested in the national capital, police said on Sunday.
Ankit Dhir was arrested a week ago from near AIIMS in south Delhi following an input that he will pass through the area.
Dhir, who was involved in flesh trade for a long time, had been arrested several times along with girls in connection with prostitution cases.
A Mercedes E-class, a Honda Civic, a Skoda Laura and a Tata Safari, all luxury cars that he bought allegedly using fake demand drafts, were recovered.
The arrest came following investigations into several cases of a buyer giving fake demand drafts to owners of high-end cars.
During interrogation, Dhir revealed that earlier he was arrested in January 2009 at Sahibabad link road police station while he was in possession of a Honda Civic car that was stolen from Paschim Vihar in Delhi.
After he was released from jail, he started living in Sushant Lok, Gurgaon and he again started preparing false demand drafts for fraudulently gaining luxury vehicles, police said.
They said Dhir used to purchase a new sim card on fake identity as well as a new mobile handset before buying a vehicle through fraudulent means. After committing the crime, he used to thrash the sim card and mobile phone so that no one tracks his movements.
By using this method, he succeeded in getting possession of 5-6 vehicles as disclosed by him, police said. Police got a four-day remand and on his confession, they recovered a Honda civic car, which was possessed illegally by him from Gurgaon.
"He had also disclosed about a Skoda Laura and a Mercedes car, which were abandoned by him in Noida and Etawha district," police said.
Dhir, who was born in Faridabad, was residing at Karol Bagh. His father is a businessman and has his own business of computers.
During his college days in Delhi, he came into contact with one Rajeev Virmani in 2000 who was a notorious pimp, police claimed and added that he started working with him.
He formed his own gang and started giving advertisement in daily newspapers for providing escort service and in 2003 he was arrested in Connaught place with one of his associates and two girls.
"After released from jail he became more desperate and reorganised his group again and started flash trading from farm houses. He hired more than fifty girls for prostitution and adopted a unique method for supply of the girls. He purchased some wireless set and setup his own network," police said.
He got enmity with one Sanjay Gupta, a known name in the trade, who was murdered by one Bobby due to rivalry in the trade, police said.
After this incident bobby and his associates were arrested by police and Sanjay's "so-called" wife Ritika came into contact with Ankit Dhir and both started prostitution and shifted their base to Noida, police claimed.
After getting released from jail, he changed the trade and started making false demand drafts by scanning the original draft which he procured from the bank.
Police said he then scanned the draft and fill whatever amount he wanted and gave the same to innocent persons from whom he purchased luxury cars and other items.
In the recent past, several cases were reported all over Delhi and NCR that after seeing advertisement of "for sale of vehicle" in leading news papers buyers contact the owner of the vehicle through cell phone and after negotiations when deal is settled the buyer gives a demand draft and take away the luxurious cars.
In all the cases, fake draft happened to be that of State Bank of India and person involved in all incidents were also found to be the same man, police said.