Chennai: Robbers in cops' garb held

Chennai: Sending strong signals to dirty cops in the police department, three constables were arrested by railway police after they allegedly extorted money from a train passenger at Chennai Central station on Monday.  The arrested were identified as Ramakrishnan, Aruldas and Irudayaraj, belonging to 13th battalion of TSP in Veerapuram.

They were remanded to judicial custody early Tuesday morning after the 23 year-old victim from Odisha lodged a complaint with the Chennai Central railway police.

The three cops, on duty at Chennai Central railway station, had taken the victim Vinod Kumar Reddy, a causal worker who was travelling to Kerala, to a deserted area of the station early Monday morning in the name of conducting enquiry.

“They took him to an area which was not under CCTV coverage. Then in the name of conducting enquiries, they snatched his purse containing Rs 1,800 and also took his mobile phone. After leaving him in the dark corner, the three went back to work as if nothing had happened,” a senior railway police official said.
The victim followed them and started ‘begging’ for his phone and at least some money. The three cops, embarrassed by the act of their victim in front of public, gave back the phone and '300 from his purse. The youth, who had studied up to first year BA, was worried about the phone because it was expensive and was his only link to his world of friends through FB and other social networking platforms.

The dirty cops had even made him disclose the PIN numbers of two ATM cards he was carrying and they swiped it in an ATM only to find that there was no balance, police added.

Someone in the station had suggested he approach the police station but the youth was not sure about what to do. By afternoon he made up his mind and went to the railway police station at Chennai Central station and told the inspector there about the morning incident.

“FIR was immediately registered and senior officials were informed about it. By evening the railway SP and IG stepped in and made sure that the probe was in the right direction. Though the victim had named the suspects as he remembered reading their name from the badges, higher officials conducted an identification parade before zeroing in on the three policemen who extorted money from him,” a senior railway police official said.