Fraudster posing as cop nabbed

KOLKATA: A man was arrested on Friday for posing as a police officer and extracting money from a number of youths on false charges.
Thanks to his good looks and fluency in English, Raja Sarkar (34) had no problems posing as a man in uniform. His modus operandi was simple: he would track down school and college students - usually from influential families - and tell them that they were wanted by the city police.He would then ask his victims to cough up money or expensive jewellery to 'overlook' the matter.
To make his act convincing, Sarkar would not scrimp on doing his 'homework'. After fixing a target - usually someone who wore expensive jewellery - he would trail him for days. This helped him garner details about his target's whereabouts.
Sarkar would then corner his victim on a deserted stretch, posing as a tough police officer. To make his act convincing, he would even carry a toy gun on a holster.
Sarkar would first frighten the youth, telling him that the police have been looking out for him for some time. To frighten his target, he would point out to passers-by and say that they were actually plainclothesmen, who had cordoned off the area. As his last weapon, he would list the victim's whereabouts for the last few days. This completely stunned the victim, who was convinced that he must be, for some reason, one of the city police's most wanted.
In this way, Sarkar was able to extract huge sums of money from a number of youths, while others readily parted with their ornaments without even asking what offence they had committed.
Among the ornaments Sarkar extracted were a gold chain and a gold bracelet from a student of Jaipuria College. This student, who was accosted at Beadon Street, lodged a complaint.
During the probe, sleuths from the city police's detective department found that Raja had robbed at least seven students - all male, aged between 17 and 22 - this way. After a long search, Sarkar was nabbed from a flat in Garia on Friday. "He was produced in court on Saturday and remanded in police custody," said DC (DD) Jawed Shamim.