Man posing as DSP arrested
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A team from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Thursday night arrested a man who posed as a DVAC DSP and tried to extract money from a government official. The vigilance team also arrested his two associates.
Those arrested were identified as Gandhi alias Christopher, 38, from Mandaveli, Mariapppan, 35, and Karthikeyan, 22, of Triplicane.
DVAC officials said Christopher posed as DSP Ponnusamy, (now retired from the DVAC) and tried to strike a deal with N. Sriranganathan, a retired deputy collector of Salem, after informing him that he was conducting inquiries in a case against him.
“Sriranganathan was told about the inquiry first by Murugesa Bhoopathi of former Coimbatore Agricultural University. Sriranganathan believed it and started talking to the ‘DSP’,” said the officials.
Murugesa Bhoopathi also thought that the person who spoke to him over phone was a DSP as the police official had raided his premises earlier and informed the retired collector, who he knew.
The man posing as Ponnusamy told the retired deputy collector that he was inquiring into a complaint and would close the inquiry in favour of the retired official on receipt of Rs 5 lakh. Sriranganathan negotiated with the caller and managed to reduce the bribe to Rs 3 lakh.
On July 6, Sriranganathan reached Chennai with Rs 2.75 lakh according to the instruction of the ‘DSP’ and placed the money under a neem tree in front of the Madras Rae Club, Guindy. Sriranganathan was asked to pay the rest of the money, Rs 25,000, on Thursday.
He started having doubts about the identity of the ‘DSP’ and lodged a complaint with the DVAC. The sleuths laid the trap and caught the fake DSP red-handed in Chepauk. His two associates, who were assigned to alert him about possible police presence, were also arrested.
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