Man poses as Vice President, arrested from Delhi airport

He created a fake WhatsApp account in the name of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and had sent messages to several senior bureaucrats seeking favours, said officers

The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police has arrested an Italy-based Indian citizen from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport for posing as Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar to dupe people, officers aware of the matter said on Monday.

Gagandeep Singh, 22, a resident of Offanengo, Italy since 2017, was arrested from T-3 on Saturday.

Police said Gagandeep Singh, 22, a resident of Offanengo, Italy since 2017, was arrested from T-3 on Saturday. He had created a fake WhatsApp account in the name of Dhankhar and had sent messages to several senior bureaucrats seeking favours, they said.

“After watching several YouTube videos and getting contact details of senior bureaucrats, Singh decided to create a fake WhatsApp account using the photo of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and sent messages to senior government officials. On Tuesday, we arrested his associate Ashwani Kumar (29), a resident of Samana in Punjab, who provided OTPs to Singh to create the fake WhatsApp account,” deputy commissioner of police (IFSO) Prashant Gautam said.

“Though no complaint was lodged from the VP’s office, taking suo moto cognisance of the case, a first information report was registered in this connection. The details of the impersonating WhatsApp profile were immediately obtained from WhatsApp, and the IP address of the sender was traced back to Italy. The IFSO team started working on all technical aspects and conducted raids, following which Kumar was arrested,” the DCP said.

He said after extensive human and technical surveillance and analysis of technical details provided from social media platforms, a police team collected details about Singh from the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO), different banks and the regional passport office. “Subsequently, the accused was arrested from IGI airport. We have also recovered five mobile phones used in the commission of crime from his possession,” he said.

When contacted, a senior official of the Vice President’s office said they did not have any information about the case. “We came about this matter from media reports. The police will do the probe,” the official said, asking not to be named.