The conman that I wasn’t

IT was a cool morning in February 1985 and sitting in my JNU hostel room, I was engrossed in arranging material for a seminar. A stranger entered my room and introduced himself as Vijay Singh, a friend of my cousin who was doing post-graduation from Government College, Hisar. He said, “I have to appear for an interview in Delhi tomorrow and your cousin suggested that I should stay with you today.” I asked him to take rest before heading to the dining hall for breakfast.

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When I returned, my room was in disarray and the man had disappeared with my student identity card, a watch and a transistor. Immediately, a fellow student made frantic phone calls to the Vasant Vihar police station, but the police party that reached the hostel was not inclined to register an FIR for this ‘petty’ theft. Apprehending the misuse of my identity card, the student lodged a complaint about its loss and provided me a copy of the same.

His apprehension proved right; within a month of the incident, I received a letter from an armyman stationed at Babina Cantt in Madhya Pradesh, demanding to return Rs 1,000 that I had borrowed from him. The imposter fabricated my identity card and extracted money in my name from soldiers, mostly belonging to Haryana. His modus operandi was to claim that he had come for a job interview and had lost his wallet.

Meanwhile, I got a reply from my cousin in Hisar who said that this man had duped him as well, pretending to be a JNU student.

In due course, it became an ordeal for me as I started receiving letters from the victims. I again approached the police and lodged a complaint of fraud committed with soldiers but got in return only a stamped copy of it.

This conman was on a duping spree in my name. Some of the victims even visited me. Once a JCO accompanied by his daughter, studying in Delhi University, reached my hostel to recover the loan that this swindler took from him. Another day, a DTC bus conductor approached me for the money extracted from his brother posted at Chandimandir Cantt. Since he had not seen the conman, I had a hard time convincing him that I was innocent. I even faced an inquiry by the hostel warden regarding a complaint by a man to the JNU Vice-Chancellor, alleging that I had stolen his bicycle from Roorkee.

Harassed, I brought copies of the police complaints to the hostel caretaker’s office for clarification. The last person deceived by this thug met me during my post-doctoral tenure in 1993. Then he identified himself as Vijay Singh and told the victim, “You may recover the amount from my friend Mahabir if I am not available at my hostel address in JNU.” This impersonator, like a ghost, kept track of me on the university campus all along!