A man was arrested for allegedly impersonating an IAS officer to get work of his relatives and friends done, police said Saturday.

Mani Tyagi, in his late 20s, had recently called up the Gautam Buddh Nagar (Rural) Superintendent of Police Vineet Jaiswal and said that he is an IAS officer, pressuring him to get the work of an acquaintance done quickly, they said.

The officer said that he felt something was fishy, so he put the phone number on surveillance and it was tracked down to Ghaziabad. After a probe, the accused was arrested by a team from the Badalpur Police Station in Greater Noida, Jaiswal told reporters.

"At times he would say he is a district magistrate posted in Tripura and cite his batch and cadre to build pressure on police officials," he said.

Tyagi, a resident of Sahibabad in Ghaziabad and a BA graduate, claims to be working as a supervisor in a private company, but this is yet to be verified, the officer said.

Tyagi told reporters that he had used the name of an IAS officer, a distant relative of his, currently posted in Tripura.

"I have only done it a few times to help some people with their work, I have never taken money from anyone," Tyagi said and added that he had called up Jaisawal, officials in a sales tax office and Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow.

Tyagi was booked for fraud and related offences and remanded in judicial custody, the police said.