The CBI is in search of a man who sought details of defence deals from Boeing India through a series of calls impersonating as one who is linked to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and wanting the firm's officials to meet Home Minister Amit Shah and the Principal Secretary P K Mishra.
The agency registered a case on June 30 following a complaint it received from PMO Assistant Director P K Issar, who referred to a letter from Boeing India, which claimed about receiving calls in November last year.
According to the FIR, which was registered on the complaint filed on January 24 this year, Boeing India's Chief of Staff Praveen Yagnambhat wrote to the PMO on November 5 last year regarding the calls the company's Executive Secretary received.
The FIR said one Anirudh Singh called the Executive Secretary from his mobile phone posing as someone who is working with Jitendra Kumar, who is claimed to be working as Special Assistant of Mishra.
However, the CBI said, no Kumar worked with Mishra and there was no such post in the PMO. Following this, the CBI registered the FIR under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy, 419 (impersonation) and 420 (cheating).
In his email to the PMO, Yagnambhat said that Singh kept calling the Executive Secretary and referred to "some defence bids" that Boeing India had submitted to the Ministry of Defence and that "he has orders from some higher ups for us to meet P K Mishra and Amit Shah".
At least three similar cases of impersonating PMO officials are already being probed by the CBI in the past 18 months. The CBI had earlier registered a case after an unidentified person called the administrator of Mahe region of Puducherry posing as Mishra and sought personal favours.
In another case, one Umeshchandra J Tank lost Rs 18,999 after he received a call from one person who claimed to be from the Insurance Cell of the PMO.
A Bengaluru-based man, identified as S V Srinavasa Rao, also faced a CBI probe after the PMO complained that he had written letters in the name of PMO to the Department of Justice asking it to conduct investigations against various judges.