The VP Road police has arrested four police constables for allegedly carrying out a fake raid at the Bhuleshwar office of an angadiya businessman on Monday, posing as Income-Tax and crime branch officers to con the businessman in lakhs. The police has also arrested two aides of the fake constables. According to the police, at around 3 pm, a group of six people landed at the office of angadia Ashok Patel, 58, at Lalbaba Haveli, Bhuleshwar, when he was alone at his office. They introduced themselves as Shankar Chavan, 53 and Anil Naik, 48, from the Mumbai crime branch, along with Ganesh Kate, 41, Mohammad Shaikh, 44, Amar Nawle, 39 and Hamid Sayyad, 44 — claiming to be from the Income-Tax department. The accused told Mr Patel they had information that the businessman had hoarded a sum of '35 crore illegally at his office, and began looking for it. On not being able to find the money, the accused, Chavan, asked Mr Patel to cough up '2 lakh and settle the matter or they would implicate him in false charges. “Mr Patel told the accused that he did not have any cash and called one of his friends Ketanbhai, asking him to get the required amount. Mr Ketanbhai, however, approached us, following which we accompanied him to the spot and nabbed the accused,” said a police officer of the VP Road police station. Questioning revealed that Chavan and Kate were attached to the local arms division of the Mumbai police as police naik, and Nawle was a constable. Sayyad was attached to the motor transport department. While Naik is unemployed, Shaikh works as a commission agent.
