Man impersonates customs official to circumvent lockdown, arrested

nNEWDELHI: A 30-year-old man was arrested for impersonating a senior customs official and using a forged identity card to avoid the lockdown restrictions on the movement of private vehicles across Delhi-ncr, the police said on Sunday.

The police seized a Swift Dzire car from the man along with the forged identity card. The man, identified as Suraj Singh Bisht, was driving the Dzire car which had “Government of India” written on it, the police said. They also seized a police uniform from him.

Bisht is private driver by profession and used to work for a government official, a senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

On April 3, the officer said, a police team from the Patparganj Industrial Area police station was deployed at Anand Vihar to implement the lockdown and prosecute those motorists who were violating the prohibitory orders. Around 6.30 pm, the policemen stopped the white Dzire car and asked its driver to show his “curfew pass”-issued by Delhi Police and Delhi government for the movement of essential service providers. The driver produced a government identity card in the name of Suraj Singh Bisht which mentioned his designation as an assistant commissioner from the customs department. The police said that the identity card looked suspicious and the driver was asked to furnish another identity card.

“The driver then produced his driving license. When the policemen looked at the minute details mentioned on the identity cards, they detected that date of birth mentioned on both the identity cards was different. When the driver was questioned, he confessed that he got it prepared by scanning the original identity card of a government official,” a statement by the police said.

During questioning, Bisht also confessed that he had got the identity card to cross toll plazas and was using it to drive around Delhi-ncr amid the lockdown, the officer added. A case was registered in the matter.