Three men were arrested in the Birbhum district on Wednesday for allegedly impersonating officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). They were produced before the local court and remanded in police custody for three days.
The arrested accused were traveling in a vehicle bearing a government insignia and a blue beacon light when they were intercepted during a routine naka check at Surichua. The occupants of the vehicle allegedly introduced themselves as MHA officials. However, when asked to present their official identity cards, they allegedly failed to provide the necessary documentation, police said.
Those arrested have been identified as — Aniket Dey (26), Ashok Agarwal (52), and Debashish Ganguly (36) — all residents of Kolkata, who were traveling in a vehicle when they were stopped at a police checkpoint, the police said, adding that they have been charged for “making and use of forged documents” for the “purpose of cheating and defrauding the public”.
“They were arrested by the Rampurhat police on the evening of January 15 for impersonating officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The suspects were traveling in a white TATA Safari car which bore the official Government of India insignia and a blue beacon light,” said a police officer. The accused failed to provide any legitimate documents regarding the blue beacon light and government insignia allegedly displayed on their vehicle.
In addition, they presented several “forged documents” — a forged identity card in the name of Ganguly listing him as an assistant section officer with the MHA, a fake sticker displaying the insignia of the Ministry of DoNER, Government of India, and visiting cards in the names of Dey and Agarwal, both “claiming false positions within the MHA.”
“It has been learnt that the mastermind…namely Aniket Dey, actually hailing from Assam, who completed graduation from a reputed college under Delhi University and apparently has an MPhil degree from JNU, was arrested earlier in 2020 by the Delhi Police for impersonating a ‘youth advisor’ to the National Security Council at the Prime Minister’s Office. Before that, he was nabbed by Bengaluru police for a similar offence in the same year,” SP Birbhum Amandeep told Express.