How A Techie Cheated Delhi Businessmen With Fake Pollution Certificates

A 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping people by providing them with fake Delhi Pollution Control Committee certificates, police said on Saturday.

The arrested accused has been identified as Manish Poddar, a resident of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, they said.

A sweet shop owner, in his complaint on July 23, said he set up a new workshop in the Naraina Industrial Area and an outlet at Pitampura and required Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) certificates to run those.

He met Manish Poddar, who claimed to have knowledge of the DPCC's procedure and, after taking Rs 2,01,600 (Rs 2.01 lakh) as "fees and consultation charges", provided the complainant with four pollution certificates. These documents were later found to be fake, a senior police officer said.

During investigation, the police received a tip-off that the accused was hiding at Sector 3 in Greater Noida. After pinpointing his specific location, a trap was laid and Poddar caught, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said.

Poddar disclosed during interrogation that he visited business associations, where he came in contact with various businessman and factory/shop owners who wanted to easily obtain the DPCC certificates, Mr Yadav said.

The accused took this opportunity and introduced himself as a commission agent-cum-consultant. He started providing these businessmen with fake DPCC certificates and even started getting work from references, the police said.

The police have so far identified six victims of Poddar. Twelve fake DPCC certificates, a laptop and two mobile phones used to create the forged documents were seized from him, they said.

Poddar, an engineer who also holds an MBA degree, left his bank job to start his own company, providing sewage treatment plants to small industries in Delhi's Naraina and Udyog Vihar in Gurugram.

During this time, he learnt about the pollution certificates and the formalities to obtain those. He began to pose as a mediator for DPCC work and cheated people, the police said.

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