Three fake tax officials arrested for trying to extort money from trader near Madurai

MADURAI: The Madurai district police have arrested three fake commercial tax officials, who tried to extort money from a trader near Karuppayurani on the outskirts of the city.
The accused have been identified as P Muthu, 60, of Virattipathu, S Ashokan, 62, of Anaiyur and K Santhanam, 58, of Melathoppu in Sellur.
The trio approached T Kesavaraj, 55, a ghee dealer in Yagappa Nagar, on Friday. They introduced themselves as officials of various ranks in the commercial taxes department and wanted to check the firm's accounts. Following this, the accused tried to extort money claiming that he was not maintaining accounts in the prescribed format.
Kesavaraj, who was suspicious of their activities, insisted them to show their identity cards. However, the accused allegedly grew nervous, stepped back and did not show their IDs. Kesavaraj later followed the three of them without their knowledge and managed to catch them with the help of other traders.
They were arrested by a team from the Karuppayurani police station and booked under sections 170 (pretends to be a public servant) and 417 (punishment for cheating) of the IPC.