A 38-year-old man, who posed as an Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from Uttar Pradesh and allegedly harassed women has been arrested by the Delhi Police on the charges of molestation and stalking.
The imposter often made phone calls to women and offered them fake Government jobs. He came on the radar of the police and was arrested from village in the neighbouring Gurugram.
Identified as Gauri Shankar, a resident of Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, he was picked up from Mullaheri village and has been booked for having an intent to outrage the modesty of a woman.
Explaining the modus operandi, police said Shankar used to introduce himself as an IPS officer during phone calls to women and lured them with fake Government job offers.” One acquainted, he used to send obscene content and messages to them on WhatsApp”, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur.
The matter first came to light on Nov 25, after a woman from South Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur area reported to police that a man has been harassing her for a month by sending obscene messages and porn videos. He also frequently called and abused her, When police called the phone number, the person on the other end introduced himself as an IPS officer, the DCP said.
During surveillance, it was found that the man had procured the number on a fake ID or was using somebody else’s number as the real owner was traced to Anand district in Gujarat, the DCP said.
Most f the call recipients were from UP and Haryana and they said they were being harassed by the caller, the police officer said.
After his arrest, Shankar told police that he had mobile phone numbers of several people unknown to him as he used to sell SIM cards in Kushinagar.
He he had to shut his shop down after he had an accident about four years ago. He then started working in Delhi as a security guard and started making calls to women and posed as a senior police officer from UP, the DCP said.
Shankar was previously involved in a 2010 case of rioting in Kushinagar. He is married and has two children.
Police said they are trying to contact other women possibly harassed by Shankar.
