An Anti-Narcotics Cell trap turned into a comedy of errors after the decoy — waiting to trap a Nigerian drug peddler — was picked up by patrolling policemen on suspicion. The laugh riot continued as an ANC inspector had to chase the bike-borne policeman in an autorickshaw to “rescue” his decoy.
According to police sources, two constables with the Versova police station were patrolling the Versova Link Road on a police motorcycle at around 2 am on Thursday night when they saw a man standing beside a car outside HDFC bank’s Versova branch, and stopped to question him.
As it happened, the entire was a setup by the ANC, to try and trap a drug peddlar. The man standing beside the car was an ANC informant waiting for the peddler to show up for a sale. He claimed that he was waiting for a friend, and said that since the car belonged to the same friend, he could not produce its papers.
“Our constables found his replies very evasive. One of them stayed back to watch the car, while the other drove towards the police station with the man,” said an officer with the Versova police station.
The informer, meanwhile, called up one of the several ANC officers who were in the vicinity waiting for the peddler to show up. He tried to get the constable to speak to the ANC officer, but the constable refused, assuming that the informer was trying to get off the hook by calling up an influential person.
An ANC official who was closest to what was happening then rushed over to explain. However, the official was disguised as an office employee going home from work. The Versova cop assumed he was an imposter and drove on.
Ultimately, ANC police inspector Mrityunjay Hiremath was contacted. Mr Hiremath abandoned his surveillance position, hailed an autorickshaw and chased the police bike. The driver managed to get in front of the constable’s motorcycle, and blocked it. Mr Hiremath identified himself and tried to explain. A long discussion ensued, which included Mr Hiremath rattling off police control room numbers and names of senior officials to authenticate his identity. Finally, the constable let off the informer.