A 30-year-old conman, who in August 2012 had posed as an ISI operative and threatened to blow up the Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport, was arrested from Gaya late on Tuesday evening.

Rahul, also known by other names, was picked up by a special team of the police.

Sources said the man used to pose as a bank representative or a political leader in Bihar and neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand to dupe others.

“In August, the man had bought a SIM card by producing an identity of a special police officer or a state-based police informer and called up the airport director’s landline number and threatened to blow up the airport. He called himself an ISI operative. He was arrested on the basis of a tip-off. The police are interrogating him and finding out the nature of cases lodged against him in different police stations of Bihar as well as other states,” Patna city superintendent of police Jayant Kant said.

According to the police, the man, during interrogations, admitted to having duped many of lakhs. “He used to keep a close eye on his victims. He used different names like Rakesh, Sanjay Singh, Nityanand and others. The man admitted to having used seven to eight different identities. Sometimes, he used to pose as a bank official and target people who had booked a car. He used to say the car loan had been approved but to get the delivery, the owner had to deposit a certain amount in his account. The victims, mostly hailing from rural backgrounds, used to fall into his trap. He has at least four bank accounts in a nationalised bank in Patna,” a police officer said.