Punjab Police constable arrested for posing as CM’s PA to dupe govt officers and others

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 23

Punjab Police have arrested Constable Manjinder Singh for duping several persons by impersonating as PA to the chief minister, and using the Truecaller app to falsely project him as a senior officer of various designations.

DGP Dinkar Gupta has directed Special DGP Punjab Armed Police to dismiss the constable, who has been found to be indulging in criminal acts and was acquitted in three different cases on earlier occasions.

Recruited as a constable in Punjab Police in 2006, the cop was at present deployed as a sentry guard at 1st IRB near 21 No. Overbridge, Patiala.

Gupta said the police initiated action after Vijay N Zade, Secretary, Expenditure and Director Mining, informed that he had been getting calls from a person claiming that he was speaking from CM’s residence.

When it was checked, it was found that no such person was on duty in CM’s residence or office.

However, the Truecaller app showed that the call had emanated from “CM house Chd”, Gupta said.

An MBA, the suspect used to call various government officials, and often introduced himself as Kuldeep Singh, PA to CM Punjab.

He was making creative use of technology to shield his original identity, the DGP said, adding that the cop was apparently manipulating the Truecaller app to identify himself as someone from CM office Chandigarh, SSP Chandigarh, DC Muktsar, among others.

Eight mobile phones of various companies such as Lava, Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, Panasonic, along with 12 SIM cards, have been recovered from the constable’s possession, along with an Innova car, copies of Aadhar, voter cards and mark sheets of other individuals, etc.

The Innova car (white colour) had a Flag Road and VIP stickers pasted on the front glass, said the DGP.

Among the seizures from the accused, a resident of House No. 132 A, Street No. 3, Sarabha Nagar Bhadson Road, Patiala, were two Aadhar cards (in the names of Kamlesh Chaudhary and Jagtar Singh), Voter ID card of Jagtar Singh, photocopy of Aadhar card of Satnam Singh, 10th and 12th mark sheet of Satnam Singh.

During preliminary investigations, Manjinder Singh has disclosed that he had been calling up various officers by posing as Kuldeep Singh, PA to CM Punjab.

A few among them are DSP Malerkotla Sumit Sood, Mining Officer Ropar Manjeet Kaur Dhillon, Supdt. PRTC Faridkot Sita Ram, Naka Incharge near Nandpur Keshon Patiala- Sirhind Road, PP Fagan Majra.

Further investigations are on and more revelations are expected, including the names of various victims whom he had duped and the amount he collected from them, the DGP added.