Notorious Criminal Dupes Govt Officials by Impersonating as UP CM’s Secretary, Held

Lucknow: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested a notorious criminal for allegedly impersonating the chief minister’s secretary and duping government officials over the phone. The accused has been identified as Vivek Sharma alias Bantu Chaudhary, who is now being interrogated by the police.

Following the arrest, the STF issued a statement saying that Vivek Sharma alias Bantu Chaudhary, who used to dupe administrative officials and the general public by making fake phone calls in the name of the CM’s Secretary, was arrested in Basti district.

According to police sources, Vivek confessed that a few days ago, in order to cheat the district magistrate and chief development officer of Basti, he called on their official numbers and introduced himself as the secretary of the chief minister.

It was also found that Vivek's mobile number, in the mobile application 'True-Caller', appeared as “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath”.

A case has been registered against him under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 384 (punishment for extortion) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the IPC in Basti’s Kotwali police station.

Several cases have been registered against him in various police stations of Aligarh, Balrampur, Mathura, Kanpur Nagar and Hardoi districts on the charges of fraud among others, the STF said in the statement. Vivek is being questioned.