Imposter policeman on extortion spree arrested

The accused, identified as Tamilarasan from Ayanavaram, was caught after an alert employee of a private television channel tipped off the police about his presence in Perambur.

According to the police, the TV channel employee, Sekar, residing in Perambur, was stopped by the imposter in civil dress on March 1. He introduced himself as a policeman and said that the inspector had called Sekar to the police station.

“When Sekar asked the accused why he was being called by the police, he suddenly pulled out a knife and threatened Sekar before robbing him of Rs 3,000. The incident happened near Perambur railway station,” the police said.

After the incident, Sekar had lodged a complaint at the ICF police station. As there was no action from the police for two weeks, Sekar called up the police when he saw the imposter in the same area on Saturday.

A team from the ICF police station reached the spot and arrested Thamilrasan from Ayanavaram. Preliminary investigations revealed that he was part of the Friends of Police (FoP) and was removed from it because of his bad behaviour. Thereafter, he started to identify himself as a policeman to extort cash from motorists. The ICF police arrested him and remanded him in judicial custody.

The police are investigating the number of victims who had lost valuables to him in the past couple of months. It is possible for the victims to have believed him to be a cop and refrained from lodging a complaint.