The PM Palem Police have arrested three youths on the charge of extorting money from innocent persons by posing themselves as policemen, here on Tuesday.
The arrested were identified as U. Durga Veerababu (26), U. Venkata Balakrishna (26) and G. Ganesh Babu (27), all from Rushikonda and PM Palem areas.
According to PM Palem Police Station Inspector A. Ravi Kumar, the accused had been impersonating as police and extorting money from people near IT SEZ area in the last one month.
On July 31, one Pavan, a resident of Old Dairy Farm, was sitting in his car with his friends near IT SEZ area, where a person named Durga Veerababu had approached them. He introduced himself as policeman and claimed that he is conducting special drive on drunken driving and conducting checks based on the instructions from higher officials.
He allegedly threatened them and extorted about ₹10,000 and fled from the spot. However, the accused had left his mobile in the car. The youth have come to know that he was a fake police. On August 1, Veerababu had called the youth and asked them to hand over his mobile phone. When he had reached PM Palem, the youth nabbed him and handed him over to the local police.
During the course of investigation, the police have learnt that on July 13, when a youth named Kalyan was talking to his friend near Bheemunipatnam, the accused Veerababu, Balakrishna and Ganesh Babu approached them, introduced themselves as police and extorted ₹17,000 from them.
The accused were sent in remand.
