A 29-year-old Criminology graduate was arrested at MKB Nagar here, on charges of impersonating as a cop and cheating a couple, on Thursday.
Police sources said that the accused Kamesh claimed to be a sub-inspector in the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP) Battalion. He had completed his masters in Criminology from the Madras University in 2009 and had been residing at the Golden Complex in Mullai Nagar for the past one and a half years. The youth had completed UG in Commerce at the Pachaiyappa’s College. Kamesh, who borrowed 17 sovereigns of gold jewellery from Mahesh and Saranya, a couple in the neighbourhood, citing an emergency, failed to return it even after a month.
Mahesh, a sales manager of a mobile phone service provider firm, then lodged a complaint with the MKB Nagar Police.
When summoned for inquiry, Kamesh tricked the cops into believing that he was a police officer.
He was let off on the condition that he returned the jewels, which he failed again.
The complainant became suspicious of the activities of Kamesh, who would leave his house by midnight and return during the wee hours of the next day.
On suspicion, the MKB Nagar Police too contacted the TSP XV Battalion at Sundarampalli, Veerapuram, where Kamesh claimed to be working, to find out his position. To their surprise, the police found that Kamesh never worked there. Subsequently, they arrested Kamesh from an undisclosed location.
During interrogation, Kamesh admitted to have cheated the couple and many others posing as a police officer.
Since people of the entire residential complex had seen him wearing a police uniform, they believed he was a cop. He had also got a set of police uniforms stitched from a local tailor and claimed that he had been directly recruited as an Sub-Inspector.
Inspectors Muthamizh Mudalvan and N Rajendran, who pursued a fresh complaint from Mahesh on Wednesday, arrested Kamesh, who was remanded to judicial custody.
He was booked under Section 170 (impersonating public servant), 420(cheating), and 506(ii) (issuing life threat) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A police belt, holster, lathi, two stars, a Maruti Alto car and a two-wheeler were seized from him.