The suspected police personnel were identified as SI Sudhakar and head constable Saravana Kumar.

Senior officials received information about the cops’ misdeeds when one of the arrested suspects disclosed the extortion by the police. “The actual amount of money seized was large but the SI and HC showed seizures of only Rs 35,000. Based on this information an internal inquiry was carried out and it was found that the SI and HC had swindled the money seized from the suspect,” an officer said.

On Tuesday, the police had arrested Balakrishnan, 23, working in KMC on contract basis, his associates Mohamed Khaleel, 35, Mohamed Javed, 23, from Old Washermenpet, Irfan, 24, from Purusaiwakkam and Arif Hussain, 23, from Triplicane.

Police said Balakrishnan had purchased the drug from KMC several times using fake documents and with the help of Mani, another contract staff who has gone underground, he had been selling it outside through the network created by four other suspects.

A probe is on to ascertain whether the two cops had used ATM cards of the suspects and withdrawn cash from their accounts.