RAJKOT: Four youngsters posing as income tax (I-T) sleuths tried to extort money from residents in Jamnagar but were caught by the locals on Thursday night.
The accused, all in their early 20s, barged into the house of
Shyamji Jogadiya
on Jamnagar- Hapa Road and identified themselves as
income tax department officers. They told Jogadiya that he had amassed lot of black money and wanted to search his house. However, Jogadiya asked for their official identity cards and got suspicious when they could not produce any.
Jogadiya then raised an alarm following which people in the neighbourhood gathered and caught the four. They informed police that arrested them.
The accused were identified as
Maqsood Ahmed Hussain Babbar
, 21, Mayur Chauhan, Prithvirajsinh Rathod, both 20, and one minor boy.
Two of the youngsters have dropped out of school. All are residents of Jamnagar’s Lalwadi and Gokulnagar areas.
V M Kamaliya, police sub-inspector, Panchkosi A-division police station, said, “These youngsters do nothing and just keep loitering around. They wanted to make quick bucks by extorting money from people by impersonating as income tax sleuths.”
All have been booked under section 170 (impersonating a public servant) of the
Indian Penal Code
.