Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad police on Friday arrested a state reserve police force (SRPF) head constable, who posed as a CBI official and demanded Rs 12 lakh from a firm dealing in LPG storage plant engineering design and other services from NDA-Pashan road.
The accused claimed that the company's file was being investigated by the CBI, police said. The head constable, Vindo Thorvat (39), is posted in Pune and was on vacation at the time of committing the alleged crime, police added.
One of the partners of the company, who filed a complaint with the Bavdhan police, told TOI that on Oct 22, when I reached the office around 9.30am, an unknown person approached me and told me that he was the 'CBI officer'.
The complainant said he threatened to implicate the company in a false case. "The person then told me to speak with his senior, who was based in Mumbai. The person on the other end told me that our company's file came to their office for investigation and demanded Rs 15 lakh to close the file," the complainant said.
"The person again came in the evening. I met him along with my partner," he said.
The complainant said he and his partner then finalised the deal for Rs 12 lakh. "On Thursday morning, we went to the Bavdhan police. As per the directives of the police, I requested him to come to Bavdhan and collect the cash," he said.
A police team, on Thursday night, set a trap near the company's office on NDA-Pashan Road. The team took Thorvat into custody when he came there to collect the money. He was charged under sections 204 (personating public servant), 308(3) (extortion), 336(3)(4) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 340 (forge documents and using it as genuine), and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). "Thorvat was produced before the court on Friday and remanded to police custody till Oct 29," Vibhute said.