AGRA: After fake IAS and IPS officers, now comes an intriguing case of a fake prisoner. Last month, a man surrendered to the police in a district court in Etah , claiming that he was wanted criminal Ehsaan.

He was duly arrested and lodged in jail . However, a chain of events unfolded soon after, which revealed that the man was not the wanted criminal that he claimed to be. Instead, he was a daily wage labourer, Miyajaan, who had agreed to swap places with the real criminal because he had been offered Rs 300 per day, almost twice the amount he would earn in his day job.

The identity swap, which exposed the ineptitude of cops who were harboring the wrong man in jail for almost three weeks, was eventually revealed when Miyajaan’s wife came to meet him on Tuesday -- ironically on the day that he was taken to court for a hearing on his bail petition. She told officials in court that the man they held was not the criminal that they thought to be, thereby shattering the sweet deal struck between her husband and Ehsaan.

Apparently, Ehsaan was wanted by police in a case of cattle smuggling and had been on the run since November last year. After a court issued summons to him, he devised the plan of sending someone else in his place. “Ehsaan played a trick. He sent Miyajaan to court with a fake ID so that he could go to jail in place of him. He also convinced Miyajaan that he would soon arrange to get him out on bail. But the labourer’s wife’s disclosure spoiled his plans,” said SK Verma, senior superintendent of police, Etah.

Meanwhile, the fake prisoner has now been booked by the police for aiding a criminal and has landed back in jail. The hunt for the original criminal is still on.