Man held at Delhi airport for cheating, impersonation

A 37-year-old man was arrested from the IGI airport here for allegedly cheating by impersonation, police said on Saturday.

The accused was identified as Rajesh Kapoor, a resident of Paharganj. He was arrested on Friday, they said.

"On Thursday, Sayantan Ghosh, Duty Manager of Vistara Airlines, lodged a complaint, alleging that Kapoor travelled by the Vistara flight from Delhi to Srinagar and returned to the national capital by impersonating one Sachin Gupta. He was caught based on his suspicious activities at the IGI Airport," said Sanjay Bhatia, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport).

A case under Indian Penal Code sections 417 (cheating), 447 (criminal trespass) and 419 (cheating by personation) was registered against Kapoor at the IGI Airport police station, they said.

Interrogation revealed that Kapoor was previously involved in several theft cases at railway stations and IGI airport, he said.

Different airlines have blacklisted Kapoor and barred him from flying, police said.

He impersonated Gupta using an Aadhaar card and booked a flight from New Delhi to Srinagar and returned in the same airlines on Thursday, police said.

Kapoor had planned to travel in the same flight of the full-service carrier to commit theft inside the aircraft. He used to target air passengers because there were less chances of being caught as nobody suspects such incidents at airports or on flights, the DCP said.

He earlier lived in Singapore and Malaysia for two years and while travelling by air, the accused got the idea of stealing credit cards/valuables of co-passengers as he found them least suspecting, police said.