JOIN USA man was arrested for extorting money from government officials by posing as a police officer and a public prosecutor, police said.
Shahid, 27, was arrested for threatning former Dean of All India Institute of Medical Sciences and attempted to extort money from him. He was also accused of opening bank accounts with fake IDs, police said.
The Dean received a call in which the caller introduced himself as sub inspector Dharam Pal Singh and said that a non-bailable warrant has been issued against the Dean, they said.
The caller asked him to talk to a Public Prosecutor Prakash Kumar Agnihotri who was dealing with the case. When the Dean contacted Agnihotri he was told that an RBI case was pending against him and an amount of Rs 72,116 has to be paid to settle the issue.
The victim was pressed to deposit the amount in account of the PP following which the complainant suspected fraud and registered an FIR, police said.
The accused was arrested and later he admitted to his crime during interrogation. He said that he got the details of well-settled government officials on the internet. He also confessed of opening bank accounts using fake IDs to receive the extorted money, police added.
Shahid said he followed the footsteps of Sandeep, his friend and mentor who was arrested in a similar case with his associates. The accused also used the mobile phones discarded by his mentor, they said.