Chennai: Fake cop extorts money from shopkeepers, held

CHENNAI: A conman who had been extorting money from shopkeepers and hawkers in Thirumullaivoyal for several weeks posing as a policeman was finally arrested on Thursday on a complaint from a scrap merchant.

Police identified the man as V Jayaprakash, 49, of Thirumullaivoyal and said they had seized a police uniform and a fake walkie-talkie, which he used as props to con people.Police said Jayaprakash did odd jobs as a broker for rental houses and a tout to get land and vehicles registered. He visited government offices too posing as a cop and got his work done saying he was helping relatives.
Jayaprakash’s luck finally ran out last week when scrap merchant Ramachandran, from whom he had extorted Rs1,000 three times, complained to police sub-inspector Veera Ragavan that he suspected the man was an imposter. The scrap merchant’s suspicions were raised, though Jayaprakash had shown him a ‘police ID card’, because the walkie-talkie was much smaller than the ones the cops carried and it was always silent.
SI Veera Ragavan told the scrap merchant to call him at once if the imposter turned up again. On Wednesday evening, Jayaprakash again visited the scrap shop and demanded his ‘weekly hafta’. The scrap merchant immediately called up SI Veera Ragavan, but before the police arrived Jayaprakash left the shop alerted by Ramachandran’s behaviour.
The scrap merchant had, however, clicked a photograph of the fake cop on his mobile phone. Police fanned out in the area looking for Jayaprakash and found him drinking tea at a shop at Ayapakkam on Thursday.
Jayaprakash was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.