Vadodara: A man has been arrested for posing as an IAS officer and duping pharmaceuical companies in Gujarat's Vadodara, police said. The Cybercrime police have booked the accused on charges of cheating and impersonation.
The accused, Sudhakar Pandey, got a job package of Rs 16 lakh in a pharmaceutical company by claiming to have worked as an advisor to the Prime Minister, police said. He also created a fake digital profile on the Truecaller app by the name of 'IAS officer Avinash Pandey'. So, whenever he called someone, it seemed that the call was from some IAS officer named Avinash Pandey.
According to the police, Pandey used to call pharmaceutical companies posing himself as an IAS officer and then recommend his acquaintances for jobs. The companies would agree to give jobs to his acquaintances. Then, Pandey himself would join the company claiming that he had been recommended by IAS Avinash Pandey.
Acting on a tip off, Pandey was arrested from Vadodara. Whether Pandey confined himself to cheating and impersonation or committed some other crime is being investigated, JM Yadav, ACP of Ahmedabad City Cybercrime said. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused duped three companies in this manner, Yadav said. Also, it is being investigated on whether the accused had engaged someone else or single-handedly duped the companies, he added.
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Police said that Pandey had studied BSc and by impersonating as IAS officer he managed to draw a higher salary in the last three years. From Rs 25,000, Pandey now drew an annual package of Rs 16 lakh, police added.
The matter came to light after a pharmaceutical company complained that the man recommended by an IAS officer has absconded. Police filed a case and managed to track Pandey's whereabouts. Finally, he was arrested from Vadodara.
Police said his fake profile and claims of being an adviser to the PM are also being probed. This apart, it is also being investigated as to how many companies he duped.
