New Delhi:
A 22-year-old Indian living in Italy has been arrested for allegedly posing as the Vice President of India by creating a fake WhatsApp account with Jagdeep Dhankhar’s photo as a profile view to cheat people and get favors. questions from senior bureaucrats, police said Monday.
The suspect, Gagandeep Singh, who is from Jammu, has lived with his family in Offanengo, Italy, since 2007. He studied in India until grade 9 and graduated 12th in Italy, where he worked as a laborer in a company, they said.
Police said Mr Singh got the idea of impersonation after watching several YouTube videos.
An associate of his, 29-year-old Ashwani Kumar, has also been arrested. Mr. Kumar provided the OTP, or One Time Password, to Mr. Singh to create a fake WhatsApp account.
Deputy Police Commissioner (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) Prashant Gautam said that before creating the fake WhatsApp account containing a photo of the vice president, Mr Singh watched several YouTube videos and obtained contact details of senior government officials from the internet.
Then he got an OTP from his associate to create a WhatsApp account with an Indian mobile number. After creating the WhatsApp account, he took a picture of the Vice President of India as a profile picture. From this mimicking account, he began sending messages to senior government officials asking for favors from senior bureaucracy,” he said.
The case came to light after someone informed the police about the scam, after which a report was made.
“Immediately, details of the impersonating WhatsApp profile were obtained from WhatsApp and the sender’s IP address was traced to Italy. The team began all technical aspects and conducted raids, after which a person was identified as Ashwani Kumar, a resident of Samana in Punjab was apprehended who had shared OTP with the impostor to create the WhatsApp account,” Mr Gautam said.
During the investigation, the police identified the prime suspect as an Indian national – Gagandeep Singh, who lived in Italy.
“The team gathered details about the suspect from Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO), banks and the regional passport office and then apprehended the suspect from the IGI airport,” the officer said.
Police said five mobile phones used in the commission of crimes were recovered from his possession.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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