Saturday, 30 SEPTEMBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The Special Task Force (STF) arrested the director of Pushpanjali Developers Rajpal Walia from Nainital late on Thursday night. He, along with Deepak Mittal, is one of the main accused of extorting money from people by cheating them in exchange for selling flats in Dehradun, said the STF senior superintendent of police, Ayush Agrawal. He said that Walia was evading arrest by the police and other agencies concerned for a long time and Dehradun SSP had also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest. He said that the police have registered cases against many accused including Deepak Mittal, Rakhi Mittal and Rajpal Walia for cheating people of crores of rupees in the name of investing in flats under the Pushpanjali Project. He said that despite consistent efforts, Walia’s arrest had become a challenge for the authorities as he did not even use mobile phones and constantly changed his location. Agrawal said that STF prepared a concrete strategy and the team was keeping an eye on all possible places across the State for a long time where Walia could visit. Besides this, the Kumaon STF team was also monitoring the movement and activities of his close relatives.  He said that STF received information about Walia’s arrival in Nainital late on Thursday and arrested him. “He told us that he had arrived in Nainital regarding the bail of his wife Shefali Walia who was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for her alleged involvement in the fraud with Walia. He also said that he never used a personal phone to contact any of his relatives. He used to use other people’s mobile phones to call besides consistently changing his locations in cities of several states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, among others.