Pune: Conmen pose as ACB; target town planning officer to extort money

PUNE: The Warje police are searching for the three persons, including a woman, for impersonating policemen posted with the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for attempting to extort Rs 5 lakh from a senior officer of the state town planning department by threatening to conduct a raid at his residence at 6.30am on Friday early morning.
The town planning officer (56), a resident of Karvenagar, lodged a complaint with Warje police on Friday afternoon.
Senior police inspector Shankar Khatake of Warje police station told TOI, “The three persons, including a woman, posed as policemen from the ACB’s Mumbai office. They claimed that they have received orders to inspect the assets of the victim and they wanted to search his residence.”
“However, before initiating the search, the trio offered him a solution. They promised not to search his residence and they will not continue with the probe against the officer if their demand is met with,” Khatake said.
“They asked the victim to give a sum of Rs5 lakh to them to stop the searches as well as the further probe,” he said.
“However, the officer realised that the trio were not acting as a real policemen. He became suspicious about their behaviour and called up police. A police team from Warje police station went to the spot but before police could reach the spot, the three fled from the society premises,” he said.
“We have recovered footage of the CCTV and we are trying to ascertain their identities of the three persons”, he said.
Khatake said, “We suspect that the trio might have obtained all the information about the officer before reaching his residence directly. The trio did not call him up or gave any prior intimation to him before reaching his house.”
A case of extortion, impersonating, and house trespass has been registered against the trio.