Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A man in a Punjab Police uniform walked into an Amritsar gun shop, said he had been sent by the local SHO and left carrying a licensed pistol.
There was just one problem: the police had sent no one.
The carefully staged deception eventually led investigators to 26-year-old Sukha Singh, who has now been arrested for allegedly posing as a police officer and fraudulently obtaining the weapon.
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Police also recovered a Swift car, a fake registration plate bearing the number, a Punjab Police uniform, a forged police identity card, an air conditioner, an inverter and mobile phones from his possession.
Investigators suspect the recovered items may be linked to a wider series of planned frauds.
A CALL FROM THE ‘SHO’
The case began on July 18, when Karan Bhatia received a call from a man claiming to be the Station House Officer of Civil Lines police station.
The caller said he was sending an employee to inspect a pistol.
Soon afterwards, a man dressed in a Punjab Police uniform arrived at the gun house in a white Swift car. He claimed the SHO had sent him, took possession of the licensed pistol and drove away.
Nothing initially appeared out of place. The uniform, police identity card and official-sounding instructions helped him gain the shop owner’s trust.
But when Bhatia later contacted the police station, the story began to unravel. The SHO had neither called the shop nor authorised any officer to collect the pistol.
CCTV, DIGITAL TRAIL LEAD TO ARREST
Police registered a case and began examining CCTV footage, technical evidence and intelligence inputs.
The trail eventually led investigators to Sukha Singh, who was arrested from the Ram Tirath Road area on August 3.
Police said he allegedly used a forged identity card, police uniform and fake vehicle registration plate to convince his targets that he was a genuine officer.
During questioning, investigators also learnt that he may have carried out a similar fraud in the Majitha Road police station area, where a separate case had already been registered.
Police are now questioning Singh to identify possible accomplices, trace the wider network and determine whether more people were targeted using the same method.
Amritsar Police have urged the public to independently verify the identity of anyone claiming to be a police officer before handing over valuables or complying with unusual instructions. Suspicious activity should be reported immediately, they said.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
