A 30-year-old man from Madhya Pradesh who studied till Class 8 has been arrested for allegedly duping many people, including a doctor, of lakhs of rupees. He would con the women by posing as an IAS officer, reported PTI.
The accused was identified as Vikas Gautam, a tea-seller from Gwalior.
Gautam became obsessed with IAS/IPS aspirants who took coaching classes at tutorials in the Mukherjee Nagar area of north Delhi where he sold tea. It was then that he was struck with the idea of posing as an IPS officer to dupe people.
He created social media accounts by the name IPS Vikash Yadav and started conning people. He used a fake identity card to get work done in several government departments in lieu of money and duped many to the tune of over Rs 14 lakh.
Among his targets was a woman doctor, who became suspicious of his activities after he sought Rs 25,000 from her for his “mother’s treatment”. He claimed that she was suffering from a life-threatening disease, police said.
The doctor then lodged a complaint in Gwalior and the cops arrested him during a raid at his location, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Harendra Kumar Singh said.
The police checked his mobile phone and found out that he had created social media accounts using the e-mail ID 'ipsvikashyadav9@gmail.com'.
Police said Gautam had studied till Class 8 in Gwalior. He then got admitted to an ITI in Gwalior where he learnt welding. After that he moved to Delhi and got a job at a hotel in Mukherjee Nagar near a civil services coaching institute.
He was in regular touch with the students who would buy tea from him there and would get information about the exam and result dates. After the results of UPSC were declared in 2020, he began his modus operandi.
Through the fake ID, he came in touch with some high-profile people and even posted photos standing by government vehicles with beacons. This made his profile look more authentic.
Preliminary investigations revealed that he was involved in another cheating case in Gwalior.