A 19-year-old from Uttarakhand poses as the Police Commissioner of Gurugram and asks senior police officers for money

Gurugram: In response to the alleged impersonation of police commissioner Vikas Kumar Arora, the Gurugram police on Thursday opened an inquiry and filed a complaint. According to investigators, the situation came to light on Monday when a number of inspectors—whose official contact information is open to the public—received requests for money over WhatsApp. Authorities discovered that the impostor’s display photograph was a picture of CP Arora.

The second occurrence in the last half-year!
As per the reports from investigators, this is the second time in the last six months that someone has impersonated the Gurugram CP. Senior personnel were approached over WhatsApp back in November 2023, requesting that they get gift cards worth Rs 50,000 and then provide the redemption numbers. These texts came from a phone number with Arora’s image on the profile.

Following suspicious communications, a traffic policeman filed a formal complaint.
Inspector Indu Bala of the traffic police was one of the personnel targeted; he said that an investigator is now looking into the matter. According to the information, she notified senior officials of the occurrence and informed the CP’s office after getting this alleged communication. After that, she filed a complaint, and on Tuesday, the cybercrime police station (east) lodged a first information report (FIR) in accordance with certain articles of the Indian Penal Code.

The accused, a 19-year-old teenager, never went to Delhi or Gurugram.
At first, the investigation, according to the police, indicated that the impostor was based in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. A police squad then hurried to Pauri Garhwal in order to apprehend the culprit. A 19-year-old student from a nearby college was then taken into custody by the police and returned to Gurugram.

“It came out that he was a student getting ready to enlist in the military and that WhatsApp wasn’t installed on his phone. Siddhant Jain, the deputy commissioner of police for cybercrime, was reported in the Hindustan Times as saying, “We have asked WhatsApp for assistance in tracing the suspect who had access to the student’s phone number on the messaging app.”

The adolescent “had never visited Gurugram or Delhi and had never heard of CP Arora,” according to the investigator cited above.