Man calls up SHO for free liquor posing as grandson of PM advisor; arrested
A man in India was arrested for allegedly posing as the grandson of an adviser to the Prime Minister to request free alcohol from a liquor store. The suspect put a photo of PM Modi working in his office on the app True Caller, and named the number as ?Office?. When the inspector refused the request, the suspect threatened him with punitive and departmental action. The suspect, who had no criminal antecedents, was arrested after making multiple calls to the inspector. Police believe he may have made similar attempts in the past.
A 31-year-old man was arrested from his rented apartment at Ireo Grand condominium in Sector 58 on Monday for allegedly calling the station house officer of the Sector 65 police station, posing as the grandson of an advisor to the Prime Minister, and allegedly asking the inspector to facilitate his access to a liquor store to avail himself of free alcohol, said police.
Police said the suspect rang up inspector Sudhir Kumar around 2am on Sunday, asking the SHO to facilitate his entry into a liquor store on Golf Course Extension Road, which also had a dining facility for high profile guests on payment of an entry fee.
Investigators said the suspect put a photo of PM Modi working in his office as his profile picture on True Caller, an app that identifies phone numbers based on user inputs, and named the number as “Office”.
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (Crime-1), said the suspect Satya Prakash wanted free liquor and food from the store.
“It was with this motive that he rang up the SHO and asked him to make all necessary arrangements at the liquor store. The SHO, however, refused to entertain his request,” he said.
Sangwan said Prakash even threatened the officer with punitive and departmental action.
The ACP said Prakash made multiple calls to the inspector in an attempt to pressure him. The inspector began to suspect foul play and alerted senior officers, following which an FIR was registered on his complaint under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 65 police station on Sunday morning.
“We took up the investigation on priority. Soon, it became clear that there was no one by the name that the suspect mentioned as the PM advisor working in the Prime Minister’s Office. After collecting concrete evidence against him, we arrested Prakash on Monday,” he said.
A senior police officer said during the course of interrogation, it came to fore that the grandfather of one of Prakash’s friends used to work at the PMO long ago.
“He had seen firsthand from his friend the effectiveness of having a high-ranking official as kin and he decided to pose as one himself,” he said.
According to police, the suspect worked as a tele caller for a reputed institute that specialised in training cabin crew for airlines. Police said that he was living alone at a rented apartment in Sector 58.
Though Prakash had no criminal antecedents, police believe that he may have pressed others in a similar manner to gain favours and the success in those attempts might have emboldened him to call the SHO.