New Delhi/IBNS: A 69-year-old man, an alumnus of St. Stephen's College,was arrested in Ghaziabad while attempting to impersonate a retired IPS officer to con officials so he could intervene in an investigation against his businessman friend, media reports said.

The elderly man, Amil Katyal, used fake credentials to con government officers to get key work done and make huge sums of money.

NDTV reports said that Katyal, a resident of Delhi's posh Greater Kailash-1 locality, claimed to be a retired IPS officer (1979 batch) of the Manipur cadre who had served in top positions such as Director General of Police, Intelligence Bureau officer, and advisor to the Union Home Ministry.

During his travels to various places, he posed as an IPS officer and misled junior police officers so he could get work done by them.

As per reports, he would sometimes even introduce himself as a college mate of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and the list of his cons extends from Delhi-NCR to as far as Dubai.

Who is Anil Katyal?

After studying Chemistry at the prestigious St Stephen's College, he appeared for UPSC, but failed to crack it. He then went to the US' Yale University for a doctorate but dropped out. He worked as a senior executive in Hindustan Lever, Yamaha and then Vodafone, police said.

Katyal retired as a vice-president of corporate affairs from Vodafone and lives in a bungalow in Delhi's posh GK-1 locality.

According to police they were unable to grill Katyal much owing to his advanced age, but are going through his bank transactions to understand the reason behind his moves.

A probe has revealed that he conned several senior government officers in Delhi and Gurugram and got work done.

How was he caught?

When his friend Vinod Kapoor was charged in a fraud case at a police station in Ghaziabad's Indirapuram, Anil Katyal introduced himself as a retired IPS officer presently working as an MHA advisor in order to protect his friend.

Kapoor owns a construction company that has undertaken projects at Delhi airport and Gwalior air base.

Katyal attempted to pressurise the police station chief and other officers and threatened them with cases.

"We have found a lot of incriminating evidence from his phone," a senior officer was quoted by NDTV.

According to reports, Katyal told police officers that his friend had been wrongfully arrested and threatened to sue them.

He visited the office of Ghaziabad police commissioner on Tuesday to lobby for Kapoor.

According to a report in The Times of India, he took some people posing as IPS officers for impact. The top cop smelled a rat when Katyal insisted on taking a photograph with him.

"When we searched online if there was any officer from the 1979 batch, there were zero matches and we caught him," the officer was quoted by NDTV.

The senior officer warned the people against such conmen and said no former IAS/IPS officer would threaten people and support criminals.