‘IPS officer’ arrested after con man rebukes Delhi cops at checkpoint

The police said the car the accused was driving was fitted with a beacon light and he had pasted the logo of Dehi Police on his car to support his claim. He told the police that he posed as a police officer to impress his friends and relatives.

The Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested a 34-year-old man on charges of posing as an IPS officer. The man allegedly used a red and blue beacon light on his vehicle and had also pasted the logo of the Delhi Police on his car to support his claim.

The accused, arrested by Delhi Police, for posing as an IPS officer, had fitted his car with the red and blue beacon. (Photo used for representational purpose only) (Arvind Yadav/HT File Photo)

Police said the man was arrested around 10.30 pm after he stopped his vehicle at a police picket in west Delhi, rebuked the officers on duty there and claimed to be an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS).

The police said the Hyundai Accent sedan he was driving was fitted with a beacon light. The policemen at the picket in west Delhi’s Hari Nagar thought their boss — the area’s assistant commissioner of police — had come. An officer said the man stepped out and introduced himself as an IPS officer but the personnel doubted his claims.

When the policemen at the picket asked him for his identity card, the man changed his statement and said his father was an IPS officer. He broke down when the officers further questioned him and said his name was Divay Malhotra, a cyber cafe owner. Malhotra told the police that he posed as a police officer to impress his friends and relatives.

The DCP said the man got furious and started threatening the policemen of departmental action. “He then said his father is an assistant commissioner of police. However, when the policemen questioned him further, he revealed that he lives in Meenakshi Garden and runs a cyber café. One other beacon light was recovered from his car,” the officer said.

Bhardwaj said Malhotra allegedly told the police that he has studied only up to class 12 and that both his parents are doctors. “He said his mother retired as a doctor from Lady Hardinge Hospital and is presently teaching in a private university, while his father runs a private clinic,” the DCP said.