Man poses as PMO official on high court campus, held

Chennai: A 33- year- old man who posed as an official of the Prime Minister’s Office here was arrested on Tuesday and remanded to judicial custody along with his car driver who caused an accident, police said.

The fake claim of the imposter that he was an “Assistant Commissioner-Protocol,” in the PMO was exposed after police grilled him following a mishap in the Madras high court campus involving his car which hit a motorcycle and injured an advocate who was riding it, they said. Another advocate, V. Ananth who witnessed the mishap lodged a police complaint stating that when questioned, the man seated in the car’s rear - identified as M Prasad later- gave incoherent replies and claimed to be a PMO official.

Also, his luxury car sported fancy stickers on the windscreen including “Airports Authority,” and “Interpol.”

After rushing his injured colleage to a hospital, the advocate in his complaint sought action against both the car driver, Mohan and Prasad who, he said, was an imposter.

A police official said following questioning, Prasad’s claim that he was a PMO official was disproved. “Prasad was running a travel firm and during questioning it was established that he has made fake claims. He had a fake PMO Identity Card. He was arrested and produced before a court which remanded him to judicial custody,” the official told PTI.