In a major security breach at the prestigious Officers Training Academy (OTA) at St. Thomas Mount here, a youth impersonating an Army officer was nabbed by security personnel on Monday.
The first-year engineering student was caught when he was at a military-run canteen on the campus. He also claimed to be part of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
R. Nishanth, a resident of Old SBI Colony in West Tambaram, was seen in Army uniform and claimed to be a commissioned officer in the rank of Captain, when security officials apprehended him around 1 p.m. on Monday, sources said, adding that he was the son of an Army officer in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
During interrogation, he was found to be in the possession of fake identity cards to claim he was part of the Special Forces as well as RAW.
Fake IDs, phone seized
After being handed over to the St. Thomas Mount Police Station, an FIR was registered on Tuesday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The fake identity cards and a smart phone were confiscated from him.
A senior police officer said the accused passed through several levels of checking from the main gate and even received salutes from junior officers and soldiers before he reached the office of a Colonel, whom he approached for a canteen card.
OTA trains cadets for 10 months before they are commissioned as short service officers in the Army. The only Army training institute to train women officers in the country also trains foreign cadets from friendly countries on a regular basis. Presently, 20 women cadets from Afghanistan are being trained on a 20-day module.
