Illustration used for representational purpose

BAREILLY: A 52-year-old rickshaw puller from Delhi, who created a fake profile on Facebook in the name of an IPS officer to lure girls, was arrested on Sunday night.

The IPS officer is a native of Bareilly and posted in Maharashtra. The arrest was made after a woman approached police stating that the rickshaw puller, a school dropout, has been in touch with her for the past six months and even promised to marry her. She alleged he had even sent her obscene messages.

The fake ID has over 5,000 friends, of which over 3,000 are women. The FIR was registered at Izzatnagar police station, based on the complaint filed by father of the IPS. The woman’s complaint was added to the FIR.

The accused rickshaw puller Javed Ullah told police he is a high school dropout. After he updated his Facebook profile with the picture of the IPS officer, he started receiving friend requests from across India. Soon, the number of friends exceeded the 5,000 limit. Most of his friends on Facebook were women, and he received proposals for marriage from dozens of girls. He also admitted he was in continuous touch with the complainant from Bareilly, who used to message him the most.

Javed also told police that many of the girls used to send her obscene pictures, because of which his wife had hurled his mobile phone on several occasions. However, he didn’t stop chatting with the girls because he had become addicted.”

Police seized his mobile phone and recovered evidences against him. He was sent to Bareilly district jail after being presented in a magistrate’s court on Monday.

Police had earlier filed an FIR against Javed under IPC sections 465 (forgery), 419 (cheating by personation) and IT Act. Javed, a resident of Daryaganj in Delhi, was arrested in Chabar village of Izzatnagar on Sunday.

Izzatnagar SHO A K Verma told TOI, “We were surprised to see a high school dropout — a rickshaw puller at that — had fooled thousands of girls with his fake Facebook profile.”

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