COIMBATORE: The recent arrest of a fake Deputy Inspector General of Police in Coimbatore has left many police personnel across Tamil Nadu red-faced, as the man and his woman companion had duped many top officers in several districts into providing them security cover.
As a result, the lack of a protocol that the police can follow in such instances has come in for criticism. A formal protocol for dispatching a security detail for a visiting officer would mean a formal request from the Public Department or the Security Branch. However, security cover often provided to the two imposters were obtained through “personal requests” to police officials and local inspectors.
The alleged imposter, G Shanmugam Durai from Madurai, and his companion, Meena Kumari, are suspected to have cheated the police and carried out extortion in Thiruvannamalai and other districts. They are not the first people to profit by claiming to be IAS or IPS officers. In June 2013, the Chennai police arrested 25-year-old V Bala Manikandan, who led a life of luxury, ‘armed’ with a cruiser motorcycle and cinema-style facial hair to fit the persona of a gun-wielding policeman.
He was masquerading as a Deputy Police Commissioner to impress women. He was exposed only when his gym instructor complained to police. A year earlier, 36-year-old Vijaya Banu alias Sheeba Mathew of Vellalore was arrested in Chennai for cheating locals by claiming to be an IPS officer. She morphed pictures of her face with the torso of women police officers and conned many people.
Earlier this year, Ruby Chowdhary, a woman posing as a trainee IAS officer, was arrested by the police in Mussoorie. Criminals not only pose as IAS and IPS officers to extort money and profit from shady business dealings, but also pretend to be sub-inspectors and constables to commit thefts, sources said.