Man held for trying to enter North Block in Delhi with forged ID

The Delhi Police have arrested a man who attempted to enter North Block on the basis of forged papers, officers aware of the matter said on Wednesday. The suspect was caught at a security checkpoint at the entrance of the offices of the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Tuesday afternoon when he presented a forged ministry ID card, which bore the name “Aditya Pratap Singh”, to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, the officers said.

The suspect has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections related to impersonation, cheating, and forgery. Devesh Kumar Mahla, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), said that the suspect is being interrogated to verify his identity.

Investigators said the suspect has no identifiable terror links, and is believed to be a con man who was trying to enter the MHA offices to dupe candidates for ministry jobs.

Giving details of the case, a senior police officer said the man arrived at the security checkpoint at 4pm on Tuesday and presented an ID card identifying him as MHA private secretary Aditya Pratap Singh. “However, CISF personnel were immediately suspicious because they had never seen him before and the ID appeared forged. When he failed to give satisfactory answers to questions about his ministry profile, he was handed over to Delhi Police,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.

“The suspect was brought to the Kartavya Path police station, where he showed us his Aadhaar card identifying him as Aditya Pratap Singh. He claims to be 21 years old and a resident of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. We do not know if this is his original name, and all his claims are subject to verification,” the officer said.

A second police officer said, “The man told us that he was trying to enter the ministry of home affairs’ office because he had given ₹4 lakh to a senior home ministry officer named Pawan Kumar Mishra to get a job as a stenographer… We have verified with the home ministry that no Pawan Kumar Mishra works there.”

“The arrested man also claims that he worked for two-three days as a stenographer in the Niti Aayog office, where he gained entry as Aditya Pratap Singh. He stopped going there after security officials found out that his father’s name did not match that of another Aditya Pratap Singh who works there. We have to verify these claims as well,” the officer added.

A CISF spokesperson said, “The suspect was caught with a forged pass at the security checkpoint, and since it is a police matter, we handed him over to the police.”.