NEW DELHI: A man gave his name as Arvind Kejriwal to police when interrogated for pickpocketing. As Delhi Police registers FIRs based on information noted down verbatim, he was charged with the offence of attempting to commit theft under the same name on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident took place in Vivek Vihar police station in east Delhi. A pickpocket was caught red-handed on a moving bus when he was trying to flee with a man’s wallet. The public handed him over to PCR van personnel after dialing 100 from the local bus stand.

Asked his name, the man said it was Arvind. But, when police wanted to know his last name, he decided to cock a snook at them, and said his full name was Arvind Kejriwal. Not feeling the need to verify it, police registered an FIR against ‘Arvind Kejriwal’ under Section 379/411 IPC and arrested him. When senior officers saw the FIR, they ordered a recheck of the details, a source said. It was only after this that the antecedents of the person claiming to be Arvind Kejriwal was verified.

Local enquiries and a bit of old-style ‘interrogation’ revealed the real name of the accused as Arvind Sharma. Sharma was found to be originally from Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi but had relocated to Harsh Vihar in northeast. He was also found to be a repeat offender. He told cops that he travelled on buses from morning to night and stole only wallets.

He may now face an additional charge of perjury (providing false information to the police) as police are pondering on whether to register an FIR under Section 182 against him.

