With an undeniably large CBI presence in Lucknow, thanks to the NRHM scam and food grain scam cases, con men are having a field day posing as CBI men and conning people.
Petty contractors and those even remotely connected with the working in the health and family welfare departments are being targeted by these conmen who move around in groups of four or five.
On Tuesday, a young housewife whose husband had worked as a small-time contractor in the health department was duped by these con men.
“My husband had gone to Delhi for some work and my children were in school when around 11.a.m the doorbell rang. There were four nattily dressed men at the door who claimed to be from the CBI. They came in and politely started inquiring about my husband’s business. They told me that he was also under their scanner in the NRHM scam. Then they told me that if I paid `1 lakh, they would ensure that we were not harassed,” the housewife, who requests anonymity, told this correspondent.
After “rilling”the housewife for almost an hour, the “CBI men” asked her to call up her husband and ask him if he wanted to pay in cash or face further interrogation. The distraught housewife immediately called up her husband and informed him of the situation. The husband, probably scared out of his wits, asked his wife to pay the money without delay.
The con men took the money, wished her luck and left.
It was only when the husband returned home the following day and started making inquiries that he realised that he was not even on the interrogation list of the CBI. “We then realised that we had been conned but we do not want further trouble so we have decided not to register any complaint in this regard,” the husband said.