The city police on Saturday nabbed a person who posed as a cop and used a fake identity card to make a roadside eatery owner at Gandhipuram relocate his shop.

According to police, the accused, K. Radhakrishnan, 54, a former Chennai Port Trust employee and a resident of Rajaji Nagar, Ponneri, was caught with a duplicate ID card of a police inspector bearing forged signatures of the authorities.

The ID had the photo of Radhakrishnan in khaki and mentioned him as an inspector (law and order ).
On Saturday, Radhakrishnan threatened a man, who ran an eatery stall at Gandhipuram, to relocate his shop elsewhere. Suspicious, the stall owner informed the Kattoor police.

When queried by a cop, Radhakrishnan maintained that he was an inspector from Chennai and even threatened departmental action against the cop.

Following this, a team of police led by Kattoor station inspector Mr Ravi Kumar went to the spot for enquiry. Radhakrishnan showed the duplicate identification card to prove his claim.

He also claimed that he had come to Coimbatore from Chennai with a judge in connection with a court case.

The police then met M. Jayaramachandran, 54, of Sreedevi Garden in Valasaravakkam, who had accompanied the accused and was staying in a hotel at Ram Nagar, to check Radhakrishnan’s claims.

“Enquiries revealed that Jayaramachandran was not a judge and that he was not aware of the fact that Radhakrishnan was a fake cop,” police said.

The culprit had befriended Mr Jayaramachandran acting as an inspector and had accompanied him on a personal visit to Coimbatore.

Acting on a complaint by Mr Jayaramachandran, the police arrested Radhakrishnan on Saturday.
Police said the accused had used the ID card to enter the secretariat.