Sam Antony had a new name for every new life. Police chased him for 30 years

For nearly three decades, he had been Sam Peter, Rahul Peter, Danny Tharakkan, Rajesh Robinson, Anthony Francis. He may have used many more names over the years, the police says, “we know about only these five till now”.

He changed his location and, sometimes, even the agency he claimed to represent. Sometimes he was a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official, at other times a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) man. He carried fake passports, Aadhaar and PAN cards to match the identities he assumed.

To the police, his name meant one thing: a conman with exceptional expertise in deception – one strikingly similar to Special 26, the Bollywood film in which a gang skilfully impersonates CBI officers to target wealthy victims.

What continues to baffle the police is how easily he passed himself off as someone he is not. “He is fluent in English and his authority over the law is remarkable. If someone is unaware of his history and speaks to him for 10 minutes, he can convince them that he is some elite businessman or an officer of a central agency,” says Mangaluru East police inspector Anantha Padmanabha, who questioned him after his arrest this time.

A police officer describes him: well-built, well-dressed, shirt tucked in, shoes polished, carrying himself with the body language of a bureaucrat. “And with his command over the English language, he could blindly earn respect,” the officer says.

In fact, the police officials later gave a clear description and even released his pictures. In his latest mug shot, his big muddy eyes look puffy. He has a broad nose and sports a moustache. He has a head full of hair, though it is thinning at the front.

He doesn’t colour his hair, he tells the police. But his hair is too black for a man of his receding years. He is 5 ft 8 inches tall with a solid, muscular physique. He always has a presence and always reads the room before speaking.

He is articulate: his words are measured and his tone authoritative. An MBA graduate from Kollam, Antony is married with two children. However, his wife and children reportedly don’t live with him. The Police officials say Antony's 'method' was simple.

He would approach wealthy businessmen entangled in bank fraud, tax disputes and financial disagreements involving central agencies, and offer to make their legal troubles disappear in exchange for a ‘fee’. Usually, police officials say, Antony posed as a senior National Crime Investigation Bureau (NCIB) officer.

The NCIB is an independent non-governmental body engaged in promoting awareness against crimes. But Antony would present it to his victims as one of the country’s premier investigating agencies. Many fell for the ruse; some did not even complain, a police official says, “wherever there was a dispute involving central probe agencies, Antony haazir tha (Antony was present)”.

The question that baffles the investigators is how he knew where to appear. “Did he get the information from the media or did he cultivate insiders in central agencies? We are yet to ascertain his sources of information,’’ the officer says.

Once he had found a target, the police officer says, Antony managed the necessary material to make his act look real: doctored texts, fake raid videos and fake letterheads of the NCIB and other agencies. The Police officials cite the case of a businessman, Abdul Sharif, to illustrate how he operated.

In 2018, a police officer says, Sharif’s brother Shiyabuddin was being questioned by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) after the customs department seized a gold consignment at the airport. “Antony somehow found out about this.

He formed a team of five and approached Sharif, claiming he was a senior NCIB officer, and proposed a deal — he would get the case closed against his brother in exchange for a bribe,’’ the officer says. Over the next 10 months, the officer says, Anthony allegedly extorted Rs 1.13 crore in several instalments from Sharif.

By the time Sharif grew wise to the con, it was too late. Subsequently, Sharif filed a complaint and a FIR was registered on August 27, 2019, at Konaje police station in Karnataka. In another case registered against Antony in Bengaluru, at Yelahanka New Town police station in 2019, the police officer recalls, he posed as an NCIB officer to set up an office, ran it for seven months, and fled without paying the rent.

The Police officer says Antony did not run an exclusive gang. “But he had a permanent partner — a lawyer in Bengaluru,’’ he says.