What would you do if you wanted to go on a road trip and did not have a car? While most people would hire one, a Mysuru man allegedly posed as an IPS officer and tried to con the police into paying for his ride.
On the afternoon of April 14, 35-year-old Dileep allegedly walked into the Krishnaraja Police Station in Mysuru city, putting on an air of authority and demanded to meet with the sub inspector in-charge.
He was soon directed to SI Sunil’s cabin, where he introduced himself as an IPS officer on probation, who was from the Kerala cadre. Dileep is said to have demanded that Sunil arrange an Innova car for him as he wanted to go on a trip to Mangaluru and stated that all expenses of his trip must be borne by the station officials.
Sunil informed Dileep that he would have to talk to Inspector Narayanaswamy and go through the proper procedure to arrange the car and driver Dileep had requested for.
Dileep was ushered in to meet Inspector Narayanaswamy where he reportedly made the same demand. “He was speaking in an authoritative voice and he told me that we would have to bear the expenses of his trip including the car, driver and fuel charges. I got really suspicious when he introduced himself and later asked for my name. No IPS officer would ask for a PI’s name when he can see my name tag. That’s when I got suspicious,” Inspector Narayanaswamy said.
Narayanaswamy then struck up a conversation with Dileep and asked him about his cadre and where he underwent training. He also casually dropped a few names of IPS officers and asked Dileep if he knew them.
“These were officers of 2017 Kerala cadre who underwent training together but he said he did not know them as they did not train together. This was even more suspicious,” Narayanaswamy said.
Dileep then informed Narayanaswamy that the vehicle had to arrive at his residence in Mysuru’s Vijayanagar area at 9 am on April 19. In the meantime, Narayanaswamy decided to conduct an inquiry of his own. Narayanaswamy said he found that Dileep had conned the Vijayanagar Police into providing him with personal security by posing as an IPS officer. When he enquired with Dileep’s neighbours, he received conflicting reports that Dileep is an IAS officer and not an IPS officer.
“I finally got the head constable to bring Dileep over to the station. When I asked him to show me his ID card, he said it was at home. I sent the constable with him and he produced a Home Ministry notification dated November 2018 that he was probationary leave,” Narayanaswamy added.
Since Dileep failed to show any police identification document, Narayanaswamy further found that Dileep had forged the Home Ministry notification. “We arrested him and after questioning, he told us that he had failed the civil services exam thrice and that his family members would always demean him saying he is a failure. So, he decided to forge the Home Ministry document and obtain benefits from it. He had promised his mother that they could go on a fully paid trip to Mangaluru and so he pretended to be an IPS officer to con us,” Narayanaswamy added.
Dileep was sent to judicial custody on Monday and has been booked under sections 170 (pretending to be a public servant), 463 (forging government documents), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (forgery), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) of the IPC.