Mumbai, Oct 2 (TOI): The Vile Parle police arrested a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Rajya Sabha MP along with an accomplice while attempting to con former MLA Krishna Hegde.
According to Hegde, the accused, identified as Santosh Narayankar, was seeking bribes in return for allocation of Rs five crore from an MP's local area development (MPLAD) funds, for works in his area. Narayankar also claimed to have been the former personal secretary of ex-minister Suresh Dhas of the NCP.
Each Member of Parliament is allotted a personal purse of Rs five crore per year for carrying out development works in their constituency.
"I had been receiving calls from him since a fortnight and all this while, he kept asking for Rs five lakh as bribe for allocating the fund. He also promised tenders worth Rs 300 crore but only if I was interested in partnering with him," said Hegde.
With Narayankar persistent in his calls, Hegde soon felt something was fishy and started seeking proof.
"He then asked me to send the details of the works to be carried out via email and said that funds would be released by the private secretary. He even volunteered to put in Rs two lakh from his own personal account and asked me to transfer the remaining bribe of Rs three lakh to a specific bank account," said Hegde.
Unsure about Narayankar, Hegde instead approached Dhas who confirmed that he was being taken for a ride and also advised him to file an FIR. "He only cheats MLAs, former MLAs and former ministers. He was arrested in some case earlier and had even spent around three months in jail," said Dhas.
On Thursday, the former MLA filed a police complaint and stopped answering calls from Narayankar.
However, the accused managed to reach Hegde by contacting him through an unknown number, and asked for a meeting at Hotel Ramakrishna in Parle East on Friday.
The meeting was however cut short by a police squad led by Inspector Vinod Sawant who had instructed Hegde to meet the Narayankar at the designated venue. Narayankar and an associate were then arrested.