Two arrested for posing as crime branch officers

City crime branch on Tuesday arrested two persons for posing as crime branch officers and demanding extortion. The accused have been identified as Pankaj Gupta, 28 and Kiran Alagan, 26.

The duo have extorted Rs 1.5 lakh and a blank cheque from the driver of Gupta’s previous employer. They were later arrested for demanding more money.

Gupta used to previously work with a garment businessman and was well aware that the businessman would keep few lakh rupees with his driver for emergency. Gupta and Alagan had planned to target the businessman’s current driver.

As planned, the duo then forcibly took the businessman’s car from his driver and demanded Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and also demanded a blank cheque. They threatened to sell the car for scrap if he failed to deliver. The driver immediately arranged for the money and handed over the cash with a cheque to them.

The very next day, the duo made an extortion call to the driver, this time posing as crime branch officers and threatened to booked him in a false robbery case, if he failed to do so.

After this call, the driver shared the details of the entire blackmailing and extortion episode with his employer. The businessman and the driver went to Borivali police station and registered an offence of extortion against the unidentified persons.

When crime branch unit 12 learnt of this incident that two imposters had used the name of crime branch in an extortion bid. They immediately traced the duo and arrested them.