Man posing as army officer held in Kolkata

A man has been arrested on the charge of cheating by posing as a high-ranking army officer after he was found clicking pictures inside the Fort William in Kolkata, the army’s eastern command headquarters, police said on Friday.

Promit Kumar Mitra, 48, who is in the realty business, was held from his residence in south Kolkata by a team of Military Intelligence officers before being handed over to Kolkata Police at Maidan Police Station on Thursday, they said.

The matter, which raised questions on the security at the Fort William, came to the army’s notice when Mitra, a few days back, had entered the defence area driving his car which had a private registration number with the word ‘army’ inscribed in red, a Kolkata police officer said.

“Mitra was caught on CCTV footage wearing a major general’s uniform. It also showed that he was with his son. At the main gate, he introduced himself as officer on special duty at Panagarh, a military base. Inside, he told another personnel that he is from army headquarters, New Delhi and went around Fort William clicking photos,” the officer said.

Suspecting him to be an outsider, army officials went through the CCTV footage and found that the ribbons on his uniform were worn in an incorrect manner and the formation-sign was also not matching.

“Another thing which struck them was that the accused looked much younger to be a major general. Also an army official of a major general-rank rarely drives his car. Then they started looking out for him by his car’s registration number caught on the CCTV footages,” the officer said.

Also, there were complaints that the accused had been attending parties posing as an army official. It is learnt that Mitra was a senior executive for a famous jeweller in the city before entering into the realty business.

“The accused’s father was a commodore in the Indian Navy while his wife is a teacher at a city school. We have spoken to both of them and they had no clue about this. We are questioning him to get a clear picture about his intention behind posing as an army officer,” the officer said.

A Special Task Force of Kolkata Police and Intelligence officials from the state and the Centre would also question Mitra, another senior officer said.

Mitra, who has been charged under Section 419 (cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code was remanded to police custody till June 29.