Watch: Man Pretending To Be IPS Demands Salute Instead Of Paying ₹40 Tea Bill In Lucknow Gets Exposed; Arrested
· Free Press Journal
Lucknow: A case involving a fake IPS officer has come to light in Lucknow. A man pretending to be an IPS officer from Noida was arrested in Lucknow after a dispute over an unpaid bread packet exposed what police say was a false claim to a senior police rank.
Dispute leads to arrest
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The incident occurred in the Mahanagar area of Lucknow, where a tea stall owner accused the man of taking a packet of bread from his shop without paying for it, according to India Today report.
He then demanded "respect" from on-duty police personnel. A video of the incident, now widely shared on social media, shows the accused repeatedly insisting that constables salute him after he tried to leave without paying the tea vendor.
So, in Lucknow, some guy pretending to be an IPS officer from Noida swiped a bun packet worth 40 bucks from a tea stall without paying. The tea guy called the cops, and then this fake "IPS officer" actually got mad at the police for not giving him "full izzat." pic.twitter.com/YECf0kIWqo
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) June 15, 2026
Police question accused
After the complaint, local police reached the spot and began questioning the man posing as an IPS officer. The accused repeatedly claimed that he was an IPS officer posted in Noida.
The constables, however, defied him, with one of them telling the man directly that no salute would be offered to someone in civilian clothes and that if he truly was a police officer, he should put on his uniform and produce his identity card first.
"Come wearing the uniform and I will salute you," one of the cops can be heard saying in the viral clip.
Police register case
Reacting to the viral video, Lucknow Police responded on X, saying, "A case has been registered at Mahanagar Police Station under appropriate sections in connection with the incident. The accused youth has been arrested, and further legal proceedings are underway."
प्रकरण के सम्बन्ध में थाना महानगर पर सुसगंत धाराओं में अभियोग पंजीकृत है। आरोपी युवक को गिरफ्तार कर अग्रिम विधिक कार्यवाही की जा रही है ।
— LUCKNOW POLICE (@lkopolice) June 16, 2026
Accused identified
Reportedly, the accused was identified as Mithilesh Gupta, an executive working for a private company. Officials said he was neither an IPS officer nor associated with the police force and had allegedly been passing himself off as an IPS officer to project influence and authority.
Fake Army Brigadier Arrested In UP: 21-Year-Old Caught With Forged ID And Dummy NSG Commandos - VideoSimilar incident reported
Earlier last week, Army personnel detained a 21-year-old man for allegedly impersonating a Brigadier in the Indian Army in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur.