Man arrested for posing as minister’s secretary, threatening IAS officer over driver’s transfer

BENGALURU: One person has been arrested for posing as Excise Minister Gopalaiah’s personal secretary and threatening IAS officer Munish Moudgil over the transfer of the latter’s car driver.

Around 11 pm on July 1, a man, identifying himself as the personal secretary of the Excise minister, called Moudgil and questioned him why the driver Anand was transferred. Moudgil replied saying that it was an administrative decision and there was no need to talk about it at that late hour.

Govindaraju, who posed as a minister’s secretary.

Angered by the reply, the caller threatened Moudgil and said he would get him transferred from the Survey, Resettlement and Land Records Department, where he is posted as commissioner. He even kept calling the officer continuously for 15 times.

The next day, Moudgil checked the phone number on the TrueCaller app, which displayed the name as Govindaraju T. He then called minister Gopalaiah’s personal assistant Rame Gowda who told him that someone may have been posing as the minister’s personal secretary.

Following this, the IAS officer lodged a compalint with the Sampigehalli police, who have arrested Govindaraju who turned out to be a relative of the car driver Anand, who had been transferred to Kolar.