Delhi: Man held for posing as police officer, extorting money

A 24-year-old man, who lost his job during lockdown, was arrested for allegedly extorting money from a person by posing as a policeman in southeast Delhi's Govindpuri area, officials said on Monday.

The accused has been identified as Vishal Mishra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior. He came to Delhi two weeks ago for an interview at an institute in Dwarka and was staying at his uncle's place in Govindpuri, they said.

On Sunday, one Rajinder Singh filed a complaint at Govindpuri police station alleging that he was sitting in Meera Bai Park and smoking when a man, who identified himself as Inspector Yogesh as a special staff officer from Crime Branch, Lajpat Nagar, approached him, a senior officer said.

The accused asked him to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 for smoking in public, to which Singh agreed, he said.

Later, Yogesh showed him a gun, threatened to take him to the police station and book him under the Arms Act if he did not pay Rs 15,000, the officer said.

The victim got scared and agreed to pay him Rs 8,000 through a digital wallet. He called his friend Akash, who transferred the money into the account of the accused, the officer said. ''The police nabbed the accused from Meera Bai Park,'' Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said.

It was found that the accused used to work as a club singer but he lost the job during lockdown. Facing financial issues, he came to his uncle's house in Delhi, he said.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, a fine of Rs 2,000 is imposed on those found without a mask in a public place. Yogesh decided to use this as a pretext to extort money from people by posing as a police officer and even arranged a toy pistol, Meena said.

The pistol, a mobile phone and Rs 8,000 were recovered from the accused, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)