Man held for impersonating senior cop on WhatsApp

The Counter Intelligence wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday said it has arrested a person for impersonating and masquerading as a senior police official allegedly to threaten people.

The Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) received credible input suggesting that an individual Barkat Ali Parray alias BK, a resident of Gundhassi Bhat in Sheltang, Srinagar was indulging in impersonation, using the photograph of CIK SSP on his WhatsApp as his display picture and threatening people, a CIK official said.

He said following the digital footprints, the CIK apprehended the suspect at Jahangir Chowk in Srinagar on Monday. On casual inspection of his mobile device, the suspect was found using the display picture of CIK SSP on his WhatsApp account.

During preliminary verification, it was found that the suspect had downloaded the photograph of CIK SSP from the internet and had put it as his WhatsApp display picture with the intent to falsely portray himself as a police officer, the official said.

The verification further revealed that the suspect had been involved in online gambling on various platforms for the past year and had made some advance payments on one of the platforms, he said.

When quizzed, it came to the fore that the suspect had misused the profile picture of CIK SSP and threatened the organisers of an online gaming platform seeking refund of his advance payment, the official added.

Further verification and analysis of his digital device is in progress to ascertain whether the suspect has any involvement in other anti-social and anti-national activities, the official said.