Cyber con, living in Italy, poses as Vice Prez to seek favours from bureaucrats; arrested

New Delhi: The Intelligence Fusion Strategic Operation (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell arrested two accused persons, one of them posed as the Vice President of India seeking favours from senior bureaucracy, the officials informed on Monday. The accused persons have been identified as Gagandeep Singh (22), a resident of Jammu (currently living in Italy), and Ashwani Kumar (29), a resident of Punjab’s Patiala.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), IFSO Prashant Gautam accused Gagandeep created a fake WhatsApp account using a photo of the Vice President of India and sending messages to senior government officials. Later, a case was registered and the IFSO took up the investigation.

“Immediately, details of the impersonating WhatsApp profile were obtained from WhatsApp and the IP address of the sender was traced back to Italy. The team started working on all technical aspects. Immediately raids were conducted and Ashwani Kumar was apprehended from Patiala who shared OTP for his WhatsApp account”, Gautam said.

“After an extensive hi-tech investigation, human intelligence and analysing of technical details provided from social media platforms, the accused was identified as an Indian national Gagandeep Singh a native of Jammu living in Italy. The team collected details about the accused from FRRO, banks and the regional passport office. The team got the breakthrough when the accused was apprehended at IGI Airport,” Gautam quoted.

During the interrogation, it was revealed that before creating the impersonating WhatsApp account of the Vice President of India, accused Gagandeep Singh watched various YouTube videos. He got contact details of senior govt officials from the internet. Later, he obtained OTP to create a WhatsApp account of an Indian mobile number to create a WhatsApp account from Ashwani Kumar. After creating a WhatsApp account, he put a picture of the Vice President of India as a profile picture. Using this impersonating account, he started sending messages to senior govt. officials to seek favours from senior bureaucracy, DCP IFSO Prashant Gautam mentioned.

He further added that Gagandeep is living in Italy since 2007 with his family. He studied in India till Class 9 and passed Class 12 in Italy. He works as a labour in a company in Italy. Two mobile phones were taken out of his possession, and further investigation is under process.