Woman among five posing as cops rob Kerala trader; held in Kovai

COIMBATORE: A five-member gang of fake cops, including a woman, was arrested by Erode police on Monday for robbing Rs 29 lakh from a Kerala-based textile trader.

Police said Basheer (49), Jaleel (40), Sudhir (47) and Janarthanam (47), all hailing from different areas in Kerala, along with Mahalakshmi (48), wife of Selvam from Ooty robbed Ansari (57), a textile trader from Cochin.

He had come to Perundurai in Erode along with his two friends to purchase textile materials in bulk, when the incident happened near SIPCOT in Perundurai on last Wednesday.

Four men, two in police uniform and two others in plain clothes approached him by claiming to be cops and took away the money as they suspected it to be ‘hawala’ amount.

They asked Ansar to get back the money by furnishing documents at Perundurai police station. Only on reaching out to police, Ansar came to know that he was conned.

A special team of police traced the car used by robbers stationed near a private college in Palakkad Road. Police then arrested Mahalakshmi (48) from Ooty, who was part of the gang and seized Rs 50,000 from her. Acting on her information, the police nabbed four others from Walayar, on Tamil Nadu-Kerala border.

Following their arrest, police seized Rs 24.30 lakh, car and two-wheeler from them. Inquiries with the four men revealed that they conned Ansar by promising to give counterfeit currency for Rs 6 crore in exchange of Rs 29 lakh brought by him in original currency.

They were produced in a Judicial Magistrate Court in Perundurai and remanded in judicial custody for 15 days to be lodged in prison. Further inquiries are on.