The Delhi Police has received a complaint of forgery and impersonation of a Prime Minister's Office (PMO) functionary and a probe is underway, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said on Friday.
He shared screenshots of the alleged impersonation, which have gone viral on social media, after an Instagram story posted by a designer named Kunal Merchant.
The story shows an email conversation between Merchant and an unidentified person, purporting to be Vivek Kumar, Private Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after the latter sought a table be designed for the PMO.
We have received a complaint regarding forgery, impersonation and identity fraud of an office bearer at the Prime Minister’s Office. Matter is under investigation.@PMOIndia @HMOIndia pic.twitter.com/1r1mhPCvoX
— CP Delhi #DilKiPolice (@CPDelhi) April 15, 2022
Contents of email revealed
According to the screenshots, the impersonator, in his email, wrote: "Dear Mr Merchant, We are pleased to inform you that our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has identified you and your design practice to design and build a permanent installation/ executive table for exclusive use by the Prime Minister. The desk will be placed in the PMO and used by subsequent Prime Ministers to come."
Declining the request, Merchant wrote: "Dr Mr Vivek Kumar, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Thank you for considering me and my practice for such a prestigious project. Unfortunately due to my political and social views, I would like to respectfully decline this opportunity and wish not be considered as a contender for the same. Had things been different and should I have been able to do this project, I would have liked to call this desk 'The Swaraj Desk'."
(With inputs from IANS)
