3 min readDehradunUpdated: May 6, 2026 06:25 AM IST
Dehradun police have arrested a man for allegedly swindling Congress party leaders by posing as the private secretary of Rahul Gandhi.
The man, identified as Amritsar-native Gaurav Kumar, has allegedly cheated several leaders across the country under the pretext of securing election tickets or positions in the party for them, police said.
On Sunday, state Congress leader Bhavna Pandey alleged that the 42-year-old accused swindled her out of Rs 25 lakh by promising her a position in the party.
Police said that the accused used Google to gather information about senior leaders of political parties and their associates and close aides.
Pandey alleged that a man who identified himself as Kanishk Singh, posing as the private secretary of Rahul Gandhi, demanded Rs 25 lakh from her in exchange for securing an important position in the party in Uttarakhand.
“To convince me, they made me listen to people on speakerphone, claiming they were Harish Rawat, Harak Singh, Yashpal Arya, and Ganesh Godiyal (senior office-bearers). They said that around 12 MLAs were staying in a five-star hotel in Dehradun, and they had been serving them for 10 days across various assemblies. They claimed that the cost of their stay was Rs 22,50,000 and asked me to give Rs 25,00,000,” she alleged.
On April 13, the accused sent an associate to her residence at Jakhan, where the individual collected the money in cash. After receiving the money, the accused stopped answering her calls and did not return the amount, her complaint said. She claimed that other leaders in the party received similar phone calls. “In a similar manner, they have committed fraud in several states, including Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and others. I request you to expose such gangs so that others are not cheated in the same way,” she claimed in the complaint. Based on the complaint, a case was registered at Rajpur Police Station under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
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Through mobile surveillance, CCTV footage, and informers, the teams gathered information about the accused. It was found that the accused was in contact with several senior leaders of the party in Uttarakhand and was scheduled to collect money from another party functionary near Pacific Mall, Jakhan, on the pretext of securing a ticket, police said.
During the interrogation, police said, he revealed that he came across details of a man named Kanishk Singh, who had served as a personal secretary to Rahul Gandhi from 2003 to 2015 and remains close to him. The accused then created a Truecaller ID in the name of Kanishk Singh. He also gathered detailed information about senior leaders of the political party from across the country. “In 2017, in Jaipur, he took Rs 1.90 crore and Rs 12 lakh respectively from two leaders on the promise of securing MLA tickets. In 2025, in Patna, he took Rs 3 lakh from a political worker on the pretext of securing a party position,” police said
