New Delhi: A company allegedly run by Sanjay Rai ‘Sherpuria’, a businessman arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police last week, has retired IAS, IPS and armed forces’ officers on its advisory board.One of the former IAS officers on the advisory board of the Youth Rural Entrepreneur Foundation, Indian Express reported, is connected to Kiran Patel – the man who was arrested for posing as a PMO official in Jammu and Kashmir. Another, according to the newspaper, is an IPS officer who was involved in the 2018 CBI controversy.Sherpuria, a businessman, was arrested from Lucknow in connection with allegations that he and his aides collected money from several people and organisations by claiming links to PMO. Rai ended up in the police’s net after police received information that he had taken Rs 6 crore from Gaurav Dalmiya, a Delhi-based businessman, promising to get his name cleared from a probe being carried out against him by a central investigation agencyWhile Sherpuria is not officially listed as holding a position in the YREF, but pictures on social media show him leading the company’s activities and posing with a number of ministers at events. The UP police have said that he runs YREF, and the FIR states that “he cheated many claiming proximity to those in power and by showing his pictures with the Prime Minister and other Cabinet ministers, thereby harming their reputation”.“One of its [YREF’s] additional directors, Pradeep Kumar Rai, is a “designated partner” in a Delhi NCR company, Niveshan Ventures. The other partner in this company is Kushagra Sharma, son of retired Gujarat cadre IPS officer AK Sharma. RoC records show Niveshan Ventures was registered at Delhi Riding Club at No. 1, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi on November 16, 2017. This is Sanjay Rai’s address as mentioned in the documents seized from him by the UP Police,” Indian Express reported.“At the peak of war within the CBI between then Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana in 2018, Asthana wrote to the then Cabinet Secretary alleging Pradeep Kumar Rai to be “in the list of undesirable contact men” as maintained by the government. AK Sharma was then a joint director in the CBI. Pradeep Rai’s lawyer had then denied these allegations,” the report continues.“Also, on the advisory board of YREF is 1978 batch IAS officer (retired) of Gujarat cadre, SK Nanda. Nanda had helped alleged conman Kiran Patel, arrested in March in Jammu and Kashmir for masquerading as a PMO official, organise a G20-related conference in Gujarat,” the Indian Express noted. Nanda claimed to the newspaper that he had met Rai “a couple of times as he was a manufacturer from Kutch… and maybe during Vibrant Gujarat” and “that was all”.“I don’t know how he has listed me on the advisory board. I have never participated in any of the meetings. Maybe he was influenced by my activities for youths,” Nanda said.Another listed advisor, Air Commodore Mrigindra Singh, also said he had nothing to do with the company: “I have known him when I was in service. I haven’t met him in the past four years, but we have been in touch. He came across as a nice person who was also very well connected in the power circles. He may have taken my consent at that time for the advisory board, I don’t remember. But I have no active association with the NGO.”Sherpuria, who refers to himself as a ‘social entrepreneur’, claims to be Covid hero, serial investor, prolific author with over half-a-dozen titles to his name, holding positions in statutory bodies, and even have a music video, another Indian Express report noted.YREF, opened in 2019, was set up to organise “youth-oriented and employment generation” programmes based on the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ theme in Ghazipur. There are allegations that he has routed his alleged ill-gotten money through his NGO.
