The accused, Ashish JohnA 25-year-old man was arrested from New Delhi’s Le Méridien hotel Thursday night for allegedly pretending to be a celebrity photographer to gain entry at page 3 events, fashion shows and parties.
Police said Ashish John would take photos with popular musicians, cricketers and TV and film actors by telling them he was a photographer with the Mumbai edition of a national daily.
“A case under IPC section 419 (cheating by personation) has been registered against John at Parliament Street police station. There is a previous case of theft against him,” said DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma.
Twenty days ago, a senior police officer at Parliament Street police station was informed about John pretending to be a paparazzo across events at five-star hotels in the city. “We received several verbal complaints against him, and alerted Le Méridien hotel and distributed his photos there, as this is the only five-star hotel in this district. On Thursday night, we received a tip-off that he was at a page 3 party, and we went and arrested him,” said an officer.
On Wednesday night, he was at an event at The Lalit, when police received a call that a “man entered an event posing as a journalist with a Mumbai daily”. “The event manager inquired about John from the Delhi reporter of the same newspaper, and was told he was not an employee. Before they could get to him, he had already left,” the officer said.
John had been doing this for over two years as he liked taking photos with celebrities and gaining a following on Instagram, Verma said. John told police he was inspired by the plot of a Hollywood film.
Police said John would use photos of himself with celebrities such as singer Neha Kakkar, actor Ayushmann Khurrana and cricketer S Sreesanth to give the impression that he was “well-connected”. “We have been told he would sometimes charge money from people who wanted to gate-crash these events and take photos with celebrities. No complainants have come forward so far though,” said Verma.
Police said he bought his own camera a year ago, and lived alone at a Moti Nagar house as his parents died three-four years ago.
