Eight impostors perfect cops’ talk to corner victims for extortion in Pune

PUNE: Eight men learned the mannerisms of policemen to such perfection that even the cops could hardly tell them apart. In the past three weeks, the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has nabbed five men and the Chandannagar police have booked another three for posing as policemen and extorting money from gullible citizens.
A common thread ran through all the impostors__they had taken efforts and spent considerable time at several police stations and the crime branch offices to master their acts.
The Chandannagar police on Monday booked three such impostors for an extortion attempt. The trio told the complainant from Kharadi that they had received a complaint application against him and offered to settle the matter if he paid them Rs 1 lakh.
“The Pimpri Chinchwad police and the police unit do not have policemen by the names used by the conmen. We have confirmed that the suspects posed as policemen to extort money from the Kharadi man,” police said.
The ACB had earlier arrested five men in two separate cases where they pretended to be policemen posted with either the police stations or with the Pune or Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch offices. They too had offered to “settle” complaints for money.
Amit Ramesh Mohite, who was trapped by the state ACB on April 17, mastered the mannerisms of real policemen after keenly observing them during his visits to several police stations along with his mother, ACB superintendent Sandip Diwan said.
“Mohite’s mother is an active member of a self-help group where the wives of many policemen from Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad are also members. Mohite visited many police units with his mother who would hold meetings and learned how policemen talked, worked and functioned,” Diwan said.
During his visits to the police units, Mohite studied keenly how the policemen receive complaints and how they called the suspect in the case. “In some instances, he also heard how money is demanded to settle matters,” he said.
Diwan said Mohite also noted how policemen talk on their cellphones, their tone during conversations, how they “strike deals”, how they walk in and out of police stations and how they treat complaint applications.
“After enough study Mohite started practising what he had learned. He decided to imitate the policemen to get money from people. We don’t know how many people he has extorted money from. At present, we are investing the complaint registered with the Chikhali police station,” he said.
Diwan said the conmen were so convincing that even the ACB officials were unable to spot the fake policemen when they heard their telephonic conversations. “Their act was revealed only after they were apprehended and questioned,” he said.
One of the three men, arrested by the ACB on May 7, was well versed with how policemen functioned.
“Dashrath Shinde had lodged a complaint of cheating with the Wanowrie police station a few months ago. He spent hours inside the police station and observed the policemen. He followed up his complaint regularly and had more opportunities to observe them. He then impersonated cops to earn quick money,” Diwan said.
All the accomplices had to do was stand and look like policeman and throw some curse words for effect when they accompanied the conmen.