MUMBAI: Two men were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly impersonating policemen and extorting ₹10.30 lakh from a passenger at the Bandra Terminus on Monday. The twist came when a woman assistant police inspector with the Government Railway Police (GRP) was also arrested.
GRP commissioner Rakesh Kalasagar confirmed that Vijaya Ingawale, assistant police inspector with the Bandra Terminus GRP, had been arrested and her alleged role is under investigation. She has also been suspended from duty. The senior police inspector, Bandra Terminus GRP, Nandkumar Khadikar, has also been suspended as the alleged crime took place under his jurisdiction.
The two men who allegedly extorted the money have been identified as Nilesh Deepak Kalsulkar and Pravin Vednath Shukla, residents of Dahisar and Malad, respectively. They took the money from Vikas Gupta, 31, a resident of Kandivali, while pretending to check his baggage for security purposes at the Bandra Terminus.
According to the First Information report (FIR) registered by the GRP, Gupta said he was a garments trader and was to travel to Gujarat to purchase some clothes for his shop. He said he had arrived at the Bandra Terminus at around 7pm on Monday, to inquire about a train to Gujarat.
“After making my inquiries, I was standing near the railway canteen in the main hall, when two unknown individuals in plain clothes, claiming to be police officers, asked me to show them the contents of my bag. I told them I was going to Gujarat to buy clothes for my shop and that I was carrying money for that purpose,” said Gupta in the FIR.
Gupta claimed the accused then inspected his bag and found cash in it. When they inquired about it, Gupta said the money was his. “They demanded proof that the cash was mine, and since I did not have any proof, I was scared. Then they took the bag and told me they would not return it only after I produced the necessary proof. Then they left with the cash,” said Gupta, who added that the men had also threatened to arrest Gupta at one point.
When Gupta realised he was not getting the money back, he approached the police. “On Gupta’s complaint, we have registered a case of extortion and identified the men through CCTV recordings,” said a police officer with the Bandra GRP.