Bhubaneswar, Nov. 22: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) nabbed an impostor who was posing as a journalist from Bhubaneswar railway station last night.

The police said 29-year-old Sudarshan Barik, who hails from Chandbali in Bhadrak district, claimed to be a journalist working with an Odia daily and also a member of Anti- Corruption Society, a Faridabad-based NGO. However, all this was found to be false.

The police booked him under several sections of the Railway Act. “He will be forwarded to the court tomorrow,” said a police officer.

The inspector in-charge of Bhubaneswar RPF Barun Kumar Behera said their special task force had been keeping an eye on Barik.

“Whenever our men questioned him, he would say he was a journalist and a member of the Anti-Corruption Society in Faridabad. But all this was found to be false,” said Behera.

The inspector said that Barik claimed to have worked as a telephone attendant for an Odia daily’s Balasore office from 2007 to 2009. But the newspaper officials denied it. The Faridabad NGO said they neither had any branch in Odisha nor appointed anyone in the state to work for them.

The IIC said that Barik had befriended one Mohanlal Sharma of Uttar Pradesh who was a member of the Faridabad-based NGO, Anti-Corruption Society when the latter had come to Puri a few years ago. He had also stolen some visiting cards of Sharma which he used to threaten lower rank police officials.

Police also contacted the Faridabad-based NGO but they , too, refused to own him. The NGO also said that they did not have any branch in Odisha nor had they appointed anyone in the state to work on their behalf.

The IIC said that Barik had befriended one Mohanlal Sharma of Uttar Pradesh who was a member of the Faridabad-based NGO, Anti-Corruption Society when the latter had come to Puri a few years ago. He had also stolen some visiting cards of Sharma which he used to threaten lower rank police officials. (EOM)