The CBI probe into the impersonation case involving two real estate agents who posed as Union Minister Manikrao Gavit and his aide has a late twist with Gurgaon SSP Hanif Qureshi claiming that the two had called him and another police officer a few months ago, seeking admission to a college in Noida for an acquaintance.

Qureshi said imposter Krishna Kumar spoke to him as Gavit while his accomplice Vinod Kumar posed as the minister's assistant.

"I expressed my inability to help them because the area (Noida) was not within my jurisdiction," he said. "Krishna and Vinod later called up Baljeet Singh, a former SHO of DLF Police Station, and asked him for the same favour."

Qureshi said he had forgotten about this incident as a hoax till he saw the news on a TV channel on August 13 of a purported conversation between Manikrao Gavit and gangster Surinder Bhati lodged in a Uttar Pradesh jail.

A day later, Baljeet told Qureshi that he had received the call from the same cellphone number as was allegedly used by "Gavit" to call up the gangster. The SSP then cross-checked the numb]er from his own record and found it to be the same from which he himself had received the call a few months back.

He, however, did not inform the Delhi Police or the CBI of this connection, he says.

A week after the tapes of the purported conversation were aired, the issue swiftly ballooned into a crisis for the Cental Government. But it proved short-lived as on August 24, four days after the CBI began a probe, a forensic test confirmed that the two voices in the tape didn't match with those of Gavit and his personal secretary.

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