THE MUMBAI Police Crime Branch arrested four persons, including a dismissed police constable, for posing as police personnel and duping a shop owner in south Mumbai of Rs 1 lakh.
A crime branch officer said that on January 20, two people known to a provision shop owner in the Pydhonie area gave him Rs 4.10 lakh for safekeeping. They told him that they will return in some time.
Soon, two unidentified people approached the shop owner. They identified themselves as crime branch officers and told the shop owner that they had information about him securing money through wrongful means.
The shop owner told them that the money was given to him by his friends, which he was to return soon.
The ‘cops’, however, insisted that he come along with them to the crime branch office. Unwilling to visit the crime branch office, the shopkeeper offered them Rs 1 lakh. The two ‘cops’ along with two more men, who were standing outside the shop took the amount and left.
Later, the shop owner realised that they were not police personnel and he was duped. He then informed the local police following which an FIR was registered with the Pydhonie police station.
Based on the CCTV footage, a police team found that the four accused drove away from the shop in a four-wheeler. Police also found that the accused had a prior criminal record.
Accordingly, the team laid a trap and arrested the four accused. Police also retrieved the money that the accused had taken from the shopkeeper. An officer said that the accused were produced before a local court and remanded in police custody.