A man impersonating an IPS officer was exposed and booked by Lucknow police after attempting to assert authority over real officers during a dispute with a tea vendor.LUCKNOW: A man allegedly posing as an IPS officer was exposed and booked by police after he reportedly tried to pull rank on real policemen during a late-night dispute with a tea vendor in Lucknow's Mahanagar area.The incident took place at Gole Market crossing when a police patrol team reached a tea stall following information about an argument over payment.Sub-Inspector Aryan Sharma and his team found a man engaged in a heated dispute with tea seller Veeru Gupta over not paying for a bread packet.A video of the incident also went viral on social media, purportedly showing the man, who claimed to be an IPS officer, engaged in a heated argument with police personnel.According to the FIR, when the policemen intervened and asked for his identity, the man allegedly introduced himself as an IPS officer posted in Noida and began questioning the officers."Why aren't you wearing caps? Why didn't you salute me?" he allegedly told the policemen while attempting to assert his claimed seniority.The situation became embarrassing when the officers asked him to produce his official identity card and state his batch. The man allegedly replied that he did not have it with him and would show it the next day.Growing suspicious, the policemen questioned him further. Under sustained questioning, the man allegedly revealed his identity as Mithilesh Shukla, a resident of Bharat Nagar on Sitapur Road in Lucknow.Police said Shukla later admitted that he worked at an Electronics MNC facility in Sector-18, Noida, and was not an IPS officer.SHO, Mahanagar, Akhilesh Mishra, said that Mithlesh falsely projected himself as a senior police officer and attempted to intimidate the patrol team, thereby obstructing them in the discharge of their official duties.“We have arrested Mithlesh under the charges of BNS 132 (assault a public servant), 221 (obstructing public servant from duty) and 204 (falsely impersonating a public servant).