Bhatta has cheated people for 30 years.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: A 30-year-long hide and seek game of a fraudster ended in a 1.5 Km. chase in Mumbai after the police busted him for cheating a Gurgaon-based IT firm of Rs. 40 lakhs. The arrest of the forgotten “most wanted†imposter will solve cases pending for more than 30 years, says police.
Himanshu Bhatt, now in his early 50s, has confessed to the Gurgaon Police that he has an infamous fraud-career of three decades during which he tricked people and made money amounting to many crores of rupees.
The arrest of Bhatt came as a result of the proactive effort of the cyber cell division of the Gurgaon Police, which traced his call on a case that was registered in November 2014.
Sudhir Kumar, the head of the investigation team said that his job has just begun because Bhatt makes startling revelations each time he is put into questioning. After his arrest on June 5, Bhatt has made confessions that detail how he amassed millions through forgery and fraud.
Bhatt was quoted by the Hindustan Times saying “I have travelled to several countries in the past 30 years including UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, USA and Europe and have duped people there. I have also duped people in Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, UP, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. If I get bail I will again start duping people as I am not good at any other work and have mastered the art of fraud and forgery in the last 30 years.â€
According to the police, during the 30 years of his fraud career, Bhatt looted thousands of people from 54 cities across India and abroad. Some of his victims include film stars, businessmen, loan seekers and high profile individuals. The modus operandi of Bhatt’s operation is by tricking the victims on the pretext of providing loans.
After each operation, Bhatt gained confidence and thought he is invincible. It prompted him to masquerade as one of the former Bihar governor and even as the Marathi speaking education baron DY Patil, to cheat Rs. 12 lakhs from an IAS officer who was promised an admission for his son into a medical college run by him.
Interestingly, Bhatt was arrested thrice by the police during the last three decades, but he came out on bail and went into hiding only to restart from where he left.
“Each time he got bail, he disappeared and started afresh,†said police.
They also said Bhatt has a habit of maintaining records of the crime he commits and the police currently are in possession of several hard disks that could help in solving too many other fraud-related crimes.
Till now, the Gurgaon Police has calculated an amount of not less than Rs 20 crores, which Bhatt amassed by cheating more than 100 people. They expect the numbers to go as high as Rs. 50 crore once the examination and interrogation are complete.
According to police, there are names of popular film and political bigwigs in the list of victims, but they refused to register a complaint against Bhatt and said they are only interested in an out of the court settlement.
The police also said that Bhatt is a real professional when it comes to cheating others; he even reduced his weight by spending Rs. 1.5 lakhs to look different assuming the name of Ajit Metha. He is also notorious for changing his accent and voice if needed.
Bhatt, who hails from Ahmadabad, is a school dropout whose education is not beyond class 12, but his dedication to learning languages made him fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati; making him a real confidence trickster.