Ghaziabad: An FIR has been registered against four persons, including a head clerk in the social welfare department, for allegedly cheating a man of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of securing a contract to repair and whitewash govt schools.A resident of Niti-Khand, Indirapuram, Ashok Kumar Mishra, filed a complaint at Indirapuram police station on Nov 1 against Shailesh Kumar Singh, his wife Sangeeta, Virendra Kumar Yadav and Sanjeev Kumar Gupta. Yadav is a head clerk in the social welfare department in Lucknow, while Gupta owns a rice mill in Siddharth Nagar. Mishra told the cops that he had been in Indirapuram for the past two decades and worked in construction and repairs.He knew Singh and his wife, who have lived in Raj Nagar Extension for the past 10 years. In May last year, Singh told him that he could help him get the contracts for repair and painting of primary and upper primary schools in some districts. He said he was friends with a head clerk of the social welfare department in Lucknow, Virendra Kumar Yadav, and was also acquainted with the secretary of the department.Mishra said Singh told him 7% of the contract value would have to be given as commission to the secretary and other persons, including the district magistrate and district samaj kalyan adhikari. He also mentioned an advance payment after Mishra invested Rs 2 crore, Mishra told the cops.Mishra has alleged that Yadav and Gupta spoke to him at Singh’s instance and later came to Indirapuram at least twice to persuade him. In the first week of June 2025, he gave Rs 5 lakh to them through the couple, and two days later, he submitted the details of his company.The next day, Singh told Mishra about a letter concerning the contract. Mishra claimed he transferred Rs 2 lakh via NEFT to his company’s current account on June 10.On June 24, Yadav, Gupta and Singh met Mishra outside a hotel in Indirapuram and took Rs 3 lakh in cash from him. The following day, they gave him a letter addressed to the district samaj kalyan adhikari (vikas) and showed him an ostensibly fake letter dated June 8, 2025, saying it had to be submitted in Ghaziabad.“From June 18 till Aug 9 last year, I kept on making payments of another Rs 5 lakh on various pretexts,” Mishra said in his complaint. “The payments were made to various companies and mostly through UPI.”On Aug 9, 2025, Yadav called him to Lucknow and gave him a fake letter in the name of District Adhikari Kushinagar. Once Mishra was near Kushinagar, he called Yadav and Sanjeev, but they told him to come to Ghaziabad. Mishra rushed back, but they started demanding more money, which he paid.After this, they stopped answering his calls, he said, and threatened to kill him. However, Singh said a cash payment of Rs 1 crore would fetch him the work order for Ghaziabad and Kushinagar in the name of his company, Mishra said.When he finally approached the social welfare department office in Ghaziabad, the scam unravelled. When he called the three men, they said since he did not have money, they would not get him any work. When confronted, the three men threatened him.DCP of Trans-Hindon Rijul said that, based on Mishra’s complaint, an FIR has been registered against four persons for cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation under BNS.
