Indian Army and the West Bengal district police jointly conducted a raid on Saturday to nab a Nepalese citizen impersonating as an Indian Army colonel. The arrest was made from Sukhiapokhri area adjacent to the Indo-Nepal border in West Bengal's Darjeeling district, according to news agency IANS.
The arrested person was identified as Man Bahadur Gurung, a resident of Taratal in Bardiya district of Nepal. The main charge against him is that he used to hoodwink local youths and rip them of money promising jobs in the Army. He represented himself as a Colonel in the Corps of Signals.
Action was initiated to nab the person after several complaints were made by people of someone deceiving them with a job promise in the Indian army.
"Most of them complained that they had to pay a hefty amount for getting the jobs and once the money was paid, they were even handed over appointment letters. However, by the time it was revealed that the appointment letter was fake, the imposter had disappeared," Darjeeling district police sources said, as reported by IANS.
A number of documents including fake Indian identity cards and fake appointment letters of the Army were recovered from him.
The matter was also brought to the notice of the Army authorities who started their own investigation. Finally, the Army got information about Gurung and jointly with the Darjeeling district police they conducted raids at different places at Sukhiapokhri and finally nabbed Gurung.
He was remanded to seven days in police custody by a lower court in Darjeeling. The police is working on finding out more details about his operation and people associated with him. It is also investigation how he was able to procure Indian documents despite being a Nepalese citizen.
(With IANS inputs)