The 18-year-old Bihar boy who showed up to a local police station in uniform carrying a pistol made headlines when he claimed that he paid a man ₹2 lakh to appoint him as an IPS officer. After the National Crime Investigation Bureau shared a video of Mithlesh Kumar Manjhi, in a police officer’s uniform looking confused, his story went viral on social media.
Many people sympathised with the young man, pitying him for falling for a scam. But police have now claimed that Manjhi might not be as innocent as he might seem.
After investigation, the Bihar police said that they found no evidence of Manjhi paying anyone ₹2 lakh to be appointed as a police officer. (Also read: How an 18-year-old Bihar boy paid ₹2 lakh to ‘become IPS officer’. Here’s what the police did)
Who is Mithlesh Manjhi?
On September 20, a young man showed up to the police station in Bihar’s Jamui dressed as an IPS officer with a gun which was later found to be fake. He was soon taken into custody and revealed that he was allegedly conned by a man named Manoj Singh into paying him ₹2 lakh to help him become an IPS officer.
He said he met Singh a few months ago and borrowed money from his uncle to pay him to become an IPS officer. Manjhi added that Singh gave him the uniform to wear and go to the police station.
During investigation, he had also given Singh’s mobile number to the police. The police released Manjhi from custody and began investigating Singh.
Faked being conned, say police
Bihar police said that the story Manjhi told them was completely fabricated.
When police asked his maternal uncle, who he had claimed had loaned him the money to pay Singh, he denied giving him any money.
His uncle told police that he had once given ₹60,000 for his mother’s treatment, ₹45,000 for building a house and ₹50,000 at the time of a marriage in family. But he never gave him money to get a job.
After this, the police contacted everyone named Manoj Singh living in the area that Manjhi had told them about. But he could not identify any of them.
Also, the mobile number of Manoj Singh given by Manjhi was switched off and found to be registered in the name of another person, police said.
Police also said that after tracing his location on September 20, they found that he was not in the Khaira area, where he claimed he was given the uniform by the alleged conman. He was in Lakhisarai where police suspect he bought the uniform himself.
SHO Mintu Kumar Singh said that in the police investigation, the information given by Manjhi were being verified and have so far, been proved to be baseless. (Also read: Fake SBI branch dupes villagers: Bold 10-day scam uncovered in Chhattisgarh)