Kolkata: Man whose ID was used to rent New Town flat caught

KOLKATA: Sumit Kumar, the man whose name and ID proofs were used by Bharat Kumar to rent the New Town flat for gangsters Jaipal Singh Bhullar and Jaspreet Singh Jassi, was on Saturday picked up from Mohali by Punjab police. Sumit had been on the run since Wednesday.
After the shootout on Wednesday, police came across photo IDs — Sumit’s passport and an Aadhaar card — along with the rent agreement for the Shukhobrishti flat that was booked in Sumit’s name.Cops later found out that Bharat Kumar, who had brought Bhullar and Jassi from Punjab to Kolkata in a car, had posed as Sumit while renting the flat. The original documents of the IDs were found with Bharat as well.
However, when cops raided Sumit’s Rohtak residence, the address of which was mentioned on his ID cards, he was found absconding. On Saturday, he was picked up from a hideout in Mohali. Cops said Sumit initially claimed he had given the IDs to Bharat for a car registration deal in his name but didn’t know he would use that to house criminals. Later, cops said, he confessed to his crime. “Sumit is a close associate and business partner of Bharat, who had helped Bhullar and Jassi escape from Morena, Gwalior and arranged a hideout for them in Kolkata,” said Amit Prasad, additional director general of police (ADGP) Counter Intelligence and Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU).
The ADGP said that preliminary investigations had found that both Sumit and Bharat were involved in illegal sale of fancy mobile numbers, including mobile numbers of foreign-based telecoms, purchased from different countries and other states, and sold them across Punjab, Haryana at exorbitant rates. Bharat also had in his possession an official ID of constable Amarjit Singh, which was being used to evade toll plazas, while escaping from Gwalior. “Although, Bharat claimed that constable Amarjit is his and Sumit’s mutual friend, the police are investigating why he was in possession of the cop’s official ID and if the latter had any knowledge about his ID being misused,” said ADGP Amit Prasad.
Bharat’s mother-in-law lives in Charu Market in the city. She told reporters that Bharat and his wife Piyali had come to her house on May 21. While Piyali had stayed back for lunch, Bharat had left in his car and picked up Piyali later in the evening. They stayed at a hotel for a week, she told cops.