‘I’m in Thailand, send me money’: Scamster poses as judge, targets Delhi lawyers

On August 24, Advocate Gaganpreet Singh received a suspicious message from an unknown number. The message, which claimed to be from a Delhi district court judge, read, "How are you? Where are you? This is my second number. I need some money." This unexpected communication set off alarm bells in Singh's head, leading to a significant investigation by the Delhi Bar Association and local police.

The message, sent via WhatsApp, claimed the sender was a Principal District & Sessions Judge (West) by the name of Vijay Kumar Dahiya. Dahiya's official photograph was used as the profile picture in the message. Singh, a former Senior Member Executive of the Delhi Bar Association, immediately recognized something was amiss. He decided to verify the story by visiting Dahiya's courtroom. To his dismay, he discovered that Dahiya was in Tis Hazari Court and was not asking for any financial assistance.

Confident that an impersonator was at work, Singh began investigating the issue further. He found that other former and current members of the Delhi Bar Association had received similar messages, all of which requested money or emergency financial help. The common thread among these messages was the use of Dahiya's image as the profile picture. With this information, Singh reported the incident to the police at the Subzi Mandi Police Station, who registered an FIR on August 25.

The FIR described the incident as a fraudulent attempt to misuse judicial authority, posing a severe threat to the reputation of the judiciary. The police are currently investigating the case, and no arrests have been made at this time.