Lucknow, July 23 A man posing as an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has been arrested by UP Special Task Force (STF) in Lucknow on Saturday for allegedly duping youths on the pretext of providing them jobs in the IAF.
The accused Utkarsh Pandey, 26, of Kushinagar used to pose as Flight Lieutenant and had allegedly taken about Rs 50 lakh from 50 gullible youths.
He was arrested from Deva Road, Chinhat and presented in court which sent him to judicial custody.
Additional SP, STF, Amit Nagar said that acting on tip off, the police arrested Pandey from a flat in Chinhat.
During interrogation, he revealed that he was preparing for CDS.
"In 2019, he appeared for the exam but failed. During that time, he got the idea of running a scam and did not inform his family about failing the exam. Instead, he told them that he had become a Flight Lieutenant in the Air Force and was going for training and came to Lucknow. Due to the pandemic, he returned home, saying that the training was postponed. During this time, he started this racket," said Nagar.
According to STF officers, during this period, he duped over 50 people.
In the raid, the STF team seized two fake promotion letters, one joining letter, one call letter, two driver licences, an e-pay slip, four ID cards, three ATM cards, visiting cards, a laptop and an IAF uniform cap, among other items.
During interrogation, Pandey said that he used to meet people in his Air Force uniform to gain their trust. However, information about this fraudulent activity reached the military intelligence which collaborated with UP STF to nab him.
As per STF officers, when the team reached Pandey's location, he was preparing to escape. The police also found a train ticket from Lucknow to Delhi in his possession.
Officials said Pandey claimed that he and one Praveen Tiwari from his native village appeared for the exam together. While Praveen got selected, he failed. To save himself from embarrassment, he told villagers that he got selected for the job.
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