Police sub-inspector Virbhadrasinh Jadeja of the parole-furlough squad of Surendranagar has been assigned to investigate the case. (Representational Image)
A man was booked by police in Surendranagar on Saturday for allegedly posing as an officer of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and threatened a few persons over alleged encroachment. He also ordered the Superintendent of Police of Surendranagar district to send him a report on the issue.
The police booked Rashmin Halani, a resident of Surat under IPC Sections 170 (personating a public servant), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 507 (criminal intimation by an anonymous communication). Halani was booked based on a complaint filed by sub-inspector KP Sagathiya of Women Police Station of Surendranagar.
In her complaint, Sagathiya said that Halani allegedly abused some Bharwads who had developed enclosures for their cattle near Gandwada Talav in Surendranagar by posing as a police inspector Gohil. Afterwards, identifying himself as one Mr Patel, APS from CMP, Halani allegedly called Deepak Meghani, Superintendent of Police of Surendranagar and sought a report from the district police chief about the alleged encroachment.
After the SP suspected the veracity of the call, purportedly from the CMO, he ordered an inquiry. In the course of the inquiry, when Sagathiya sought his contact details, Halani gave an official e-mail address and fax number of CMO as his contact details.
Sagathiya said that the said offence was committed between June 16 and July 21.
“The accused would talk to police officer very calmly and sweetly and giving an impression of a very high-ranking officer. But when he instructed me that those accused of encroachment should be paraded in public. This made me suspect his antecedents and we ordered an enquiry. The enquiry revealed that he was actually one Rashmin Halani from Surat and that a mobile phone SIM card he was using to call police officers was issued in the name of a security guard in his residential society,” Meghani told Express on Sunday.
The SP said that the accused used to call from a mobile number of the series which is usually reserved for government officers and office-bearers. “How the security guard was allotted such a number is also a matter of investigation,” Meghani further said.