Fake IPS officer who duped over 50 people of more than Rs 14 lakh nabbed by Delhi Police

New Delhi: The Delhi Police arrested a cyber fraud who cheated several people by impersonating an IPS officer of the 2020 batch. The accused is an 8th-class dropout, the official said on Monday. The accused has been identified as Vikas Gautam (30), a native of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. The arrest has been made by the Cyber cell unit of Outer District. According to DCP Outer Delhi Harendra Kumar Singh, "The accused was so possessed by the IAS/IPS aspirants taking coaching from prominent institutes in Mukherjee Nagar, while selling tea in front of the institute that he impersonated Vikas Yadav, IPS 2020 batch on all social media platforms and started influencing and cheating people, mostly targeting women.The accused has cheated more than 50 people of more than Rs 14 lakh."

However, a complaint was registered against the accused on Saturday under the sections of cheating. The complainant, who is a lady doctor at Sanjay Gandhi hospital, alleged that a person with the fake id of IPS Vikas Yadav on Instagram and Facebook became friends with her and after a few days of conversations, asked her to deposit Rs 25,000 saying that he needed the money for treatment of his mother who is suffering from a life-threatening disease, Singh confirmed.

To catch the culprit, a team comprising Woman SI Rajani, HC Pawan and constable Anil Jangra under the overall supervision of Arun Kumar Choudhary, ACP Operation/Outer District was formed.

"After in-depth electronic surveillance and technical analysis, the suspect was located in Gwalior. Raids were conducted and accused Vikas Gautam aka Vikas Yadav was apprehended. The accused Vikas Gautam aka Vikas Yadav first denied his involvement in any type of crime.

However, on checking his mobile phone Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account in the name of IPS Vikas Yadav and Gmail ID 'ipsvikashyadav9@gmail.com' was found logged in", DCP Outer mentioned.

During the interrogation, it was revealed that till Class 8, he studied in Gwalior and in 2010 he enrolled in Govt. ITI. Later, he worked in various hotels in Gwalior on a contract basis. He then came to Delhi and worked at a Hotel in Mukherjee Nagar in front of a coaching institute for civil services aspirants and came in contact with many civil services aspirants. After the UPSC results in 2020, accused Vikas Gautam changed his Instagram profile name to 'Vikashyadav_ips' and posted the 'list of candidates selected' on his Instagram profile, declaring his selection into UPSC, DCP Outer said.

Vikas then came in contact with many high-profile persons through that fake Instagram ID of Vikas Yadav IPS and presently has 19.7 thousand followers on the fake Instagram ID. He then identified and contacted his victims pretending to be under trainee IPS Vikas Yadav and influenced them to get their work done and started taking money from them, Harendra Kumar Singh added.