Gorakhpur Police sprung into action when a Twitter account by the name of Om Prakash Singh, the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), started issuing directions online. The Twitter account which was also using Singh's picture in uniform had asked the cops to act on a complaint where a man was duped of Rs 45,000. The local police acted in a prompt manner believing the direction was coming directly from the top.

They had little idea as who was behind that Twitter account.

The Twitter account, it turned out was created by a class-X boy who wanted action in a case where his elder brother was cheated of Rs 45,000. He succeeded with the local police in Gorakhpur, which had been allegedly sitting on their complaint, acting swiftly and also recovering Rs 30,000.

The boy and his friends were arrested when they were caught impersonating the UP top cop. They were, however, let off with a warning.

According to reports, the DGP office had reported the matter of a fake account in his name to the Hazratganj police over a month ago. The Twitter handle was using his name ‘OP Singh’ and had the DGP's photo as its display picture but it was not being operated by him or his office. The case was assigned to the cyber cell of the UP Police which found that the account was being operated from a phone in Maharajganj police station area of Gorakhpur. They tracked down the person behind the Twitter handle, and found that it was a teenager.

The boy was finally detained on Saturday. He said that he got the idea from another boy of his village and then created the Twitter handle using his friend’s phone.

According to a Times of India report, a person, identified as Sadiq Ansari of Maharajganj, had taken Rs 45,000 from the boy's brother for getting him a job in Dubai. The family lodged a police complaint when the man went back on his promise.

The family did not get any help from the police who sat on their complaint. Then on a suggestion of his friend, the boy, who had accompanied the family to the police station a few times, created a Twitter account in the name of the DGP and used it to instruct SSP Gorakhapur to expedite the case, reports the Times of India.

The SSP Gorakhapur then directed the local police to take prompt action in the case. Ansari refunded Rs 30,000 and promised to pay the rest of the amount soon. All worked out in the boy's favour until the SSP Gorakhpur updated the DGP office on the case. The DGP office found out that no such directive was issued. The DGP office then registered a case with the Hazratganj police which assigned the case to the cyber cell.

The DGP however, "forgave" the boys and they were let off with a warning. “We took a reformative approach and let off both the school-going kids, as any action would have affected their future,” DGP OP Singh said.

Commenting on the matter on Twitter, state police chief ’s PRO Rahul Srivastava said, "The news is not that the boys were arrested but that they were forgiven by @dgpup for the sake of their future & let off by the cops even after being arrested."