Punjab Police has arrested constable Manjinder Singh for allegedly duping several people by manipulating the Truecaller app to pose as a senior officer and a personal assistant (PA) to the Chief Minister.
Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta has directed the special DGP, Punjab Armed Police, to dismiss this constable, who has been found to be indulging in criminal acts and was acquitted in three different cases earlier.
Recruited as a constable in Punjab Police in 2006, the cop was at present deployed as a sentry guard at 1st India Reserve Battalion (IRB), Patiala. Gupta said the police initiated action after secretary expenditure and director mining, Vijay N Zade, 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 showed that the call had emanated from “CM house Chandigarh”, Gupta said. A Master of Business Administration,the suspect used to call various government officials, and often introduced himself as Kuldeep Singh, PA to CM Punjab.
He was making use of technology to shield his original identity, the DGP said, adding the cop was apparently manipulating the Truecaller app to identify himself as someone from CM office Chandigarh.
Eight mobile phones of various companies like 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 and VIP stickers pasted on the front glass, said the DGP.
Among the seizures from the accused, a resident of House 132 A, Sarabha Nagar Bhadson Road, Patiala, were two Aadhar cards (in the names of Kamlesh Chaudhary and Jagtar Singh), voter ID card of Jagtar Singh, photo copy of Aadhar card of Satnam Singh.