The city police on Tuesday night arrested five youth, who impersonated as police personnel, and reportedly extorted around ₹76,000 from tourists at Bheemunipatnam in Visakhapatnam.
The arrested were identified as S. Satish (24), P. Karuna (26), Y. Pavan Sai (24), S. Venkatesh (22) and Ch. Siva Prasad (27), all belonging to various parts of the city.
Inspector of Bheemunipatnam Police Station, K. Lakshmana Murthy, said that a group of family members from Anakapalli district had come to Bheemunipatnam for sight seeing and were residing in a resort on June 27. During the night, they indulged in gambling in their room.
About five youth, who were residing in another room, noticed them gambling and hatched a plan to extort money from them. The youth, who were in inebriated condition allegedly entered the room of tourists, impersonated as police and threatened to give them all the money. They reportedly took away ₹76,000 from them.
The Police Inspector said that the toruists suspected when they saw them moving out of the resort hurriedly. Based on the complaint, Bheemunipatnam Police have registered a case and arrested the accused. The police have recovered about ₹46,000 from them.
Among the accused, S. Satish, P. Karuna, Y. Pavan Sai and Ch. Siva Prasad have criminal history, said the police.