Nagpur: The Nagpur unit of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a close aide of conman Sadiq Qureshi for extorting lakhs of rupees from the Central Government officials in Nagpur for the past few years.
The accused, Nihal Ahmed Sabir Sheikh (30), was arrested by the CBI from his Chandrapur residence and recovered incriminating documents during the house search, media reports said. The reports claimed that Nihal Ahmed was on the run after the arrest of Sadiq Qureshi on November 2, 2023, after attempting to extort money from a Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer of Central Railway in Nagpur. Qureshi had posed as a Personnel Assistant of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of CBI Nagpur during the extortion attempt.
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Monday 31March 2025
Nihal’s role came to fore when the CBI officials scanned CCTV footage of the DRM office and found that Nihal was accompanying him during the extortion attempt. The CBI has frozen five bank accounts of Nihal Ahmed during the action. He was produced in the Special CBI court and remanded to CBI custody until December 5.
Reports said that conman Qureshi and his gang members were actively engaged in the extortion from the officials of Indian Railways, Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL), Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL), State-run Petroleum companies and others. The gang would present the file of CBI’s FIRs to further bolster his claim and they even had bogus visiting cards to support their claim. The gang met with every accused in the CBI’s trap cases and extorted money from them by promising to shield them from CBI’s further action.
The gang was falsely claiming to be privy to ‘secret inquiries’ being conducted by the CBI against the government officials to win their trust. As a result, some officials were covering his expenses. They paid for his stays at luxurious five-star hotels in Nagpur city and even arranged flight tickets for him through a travel agent active in train ticket booking. The CBI has checked Call Detail Records of Qureshi and identified the government officials connected with him.
Media reports claimed that Nihal Ahmed is the son of a retired police officer. His father retired as DySP Anti-Corruption Bureau, Gadchiroli Unit. Nihal was jobless and indulged in the fraudulent activities after he came in contact with Qureshi.
