Real police increase vigil to nab fake cops

With the increase in number of cases where Mumbaikars are robbed by men posing as policemen, the East Region police have intensified action and also found that in some cases, it is their own men who at the culprits.

“In a few cases, we have identified some suspects and they are policemen. In one such case at Ghatkopar, we are  keeping a close watch on a constable, who is on sick leave. In another case registered with the Tilak Nagar police, we are probing into the involvement of a suspended constable,” said Quaiser Khalid, additional commissioner of police, East Region.

The police have also identified areas — mostly isolated stretches — where such incidents take place and have posted officers in plainclothes there.

Khalid added that increased awareness among the public will help prevent such crimes.

In a recent case, two men on a motorcycle approached an 80-year-old woman near Sainik Garden in Chembur.

The duo told her that some men had attacked a woman and robbed her valuables a short distance away and advised her to remove her ornaments, place them in her handkerchief and go home. While “helping her”, they stole the jewellery worth Rs66,000 and snuck in pieces of paper.