Five men who allegedly posed as army officers and cheated at least one person in Kolkata promising him a job in the army were arrested from New Market on Monday night.
Police said the men from Gazipur in Uttar Pradesh were arrested while they were taking money from a youth.
The youth later filed a complaint against them.
“According to the complaint, the gang members had asked for Rs 5 lakh for the job. After the youth paid them Rs 2 lakh, the men started demanding Rs 8 lakh more. They asked the youth to meet them in front of a hotel in New Market and pay the remaining amount,” said an officer.
Based on information from the military intelligence, officers of the anti-rowdy squad of the city police arrested the five. Fake identity cards, fake appointment letters and a few application forms were seized from them, said an officer involved in the probe.
The accused have been identified as Shivam Pandey, Rohit Kumar Gupta, Jitendar Kumar, Abhisek Kumar Gautam and Uma Kanti Yadav. They have been remanded in police custody.
Pandey was allegedly wearing a camouflage uniform and had introduced himself as a lieutenant. Pandey, who the police said has a Twitter handle, had recently tweeted a letter on a purported letterhead mentioning his fake designation. In the letter he requested Twitter to validate his account with a blue tick because a lot of fake work was happening in his name, an officer said
One of Pandey’s relatives was in the army. He got the uniform after the relative died, the officer said.
