Lucknow, Oct 13 (IANS): The Lucknow police have arrested an imposter who served in the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) for 15 years on a fake identity.

The matter came to light when a reminder for payment of a credit card bill reached the man whose identity had been stolen.

The accused, Amit Kumar Singh of Ballia, had adopted the identity of constable Manish Kumar Singh, also from Ballia and employed with UP Police. Manish was recruited in 2006 under the category of dependents of freedom fighters.

Both Amit and Manish share their father's name.

"Amit had got an SBI credit card issued in the name of Manish. Manish also used an SBI credit card and was getting constant reminders regarding a pending bill of Rs 7,000," said a senior police officer.

Manish contacted the bank and he was again told that Rs 7,000 on his credit card was due.

Being a constable, Manish began investigating the case himself. He then found that there were two credit cards issued in his name and the second one had transaction history every month. However, Manish had no clue about who was using that card.

He went to the bank with details and found that all information about the card holder was his --name, address, date of birth, father's name. Even his PAN was used for the card and his phone number was linked with it.

Manish then searched the UP Police website and found that a PAC constable had the same details but different posting number on the site.

Manish then lodged a case with Vibhuti Khand police.

ADCP east Qasim Abdi said fraudster Amit had stolen Manish's identity and was committing fraud. He said that once the chargesheet is filed, a recovery will be made of the money amassed by him as salary.

He added that Amit was also involved in the case of fake recruitment in police.