Delhi Police arrests civil engineer for posing as part of Amit Shah's retinue

An out-of-job civil engineer was arrested for allegedly impersonating an OSD to the Union Minister of Home Affairs and trying to get himself appointed as a senior official for the Ganga Expressway project, police said on Sunday.

Robin Upadhyay, 48, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, claimed to have worked in many multinational companies for over 25 years, they said.

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With the subterfuge, Upadhyay was angling for the post of Vice President-cum-Project Coordinator for the Expressway project, police said.

The matter came to light after one Akshat Sharmaa approached the Cyber Police Station in New Delhi with the complaint that he had received an email on his official id from a "fake" email address from someone claiming to be one Rajeev Kumar, an Officer-on-Special-Duty to the Union Home Minister.

The person in his mail said he had been asked to pass on instructions to have Robin Upadhyay appointed as Senior Associate Vice President-cum-project coordinator for the Ganga Expressway Project, Sharma said in his complaint. Police in their investigation found that the email address rajeev.osd.mha@gmail.com was fake and created for the purpose of deceiving people.

"Based on technical surveillance, our team zeroed in on the prime suspect Robin Upadhyay and on the basis of technical analysis, it was learned that the mail was created six-seven days ago and was found registered in the name of Upadhyay.

"The suspect was subsequently traced and on the basis of initial interrogation, he was detained from his home in Meerut on Saturday evening and later arrested in the case," Hemant Tiwari, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), said.

When interrogated, Upadhyay revealed that being a civil engineer, he had a vast experience in civil construction projects, and he thought of securing a fake reference to get a job, Tiwari said.

"Hence, he searched about ongoing highway projects and their progress. After that, he created an email id impersonating Rajeev Kumar, OSD to the Union Minister of Home Affairs.

"He also attached his CV showing his credentials to get the job," Tiwari said.