Cops vs cops: Police to act against fake 'comrades'

After the recent incident of loot by two fake policemen in Vastrapur, city cops are gearing up to stop such unpleasant occurrences in the future.

Announcing this, Ajay Tomar, JCP of sector-1, has asked citizens to remain alert and understand the basic fact that police never ask anyone to hand over their ornaments.

According to Tomar, the police have undertaken an exercise to make profiles of suspects involved in cheating in the guise of policemen, in recent times.

The police will list all the incidents, time and place of crime, modus operandi and who become the targets.

"We are observing the trend of such crimes. We will come up with an action plan in near future after profiling suspects and gangs who were involved in these crimes in the past," said Tomar at a press conference on Thursday.

The initiative came after an elderly woman was robbed by two men dressed in police uniform near her residence at Sardar Centre in Vastrapur on Tuesday. According to Laxmi Mahadevan, 82, a resident of Sardar Centre apartments, two men stopped her near the main gate and asked her to hand over her ornaments for 'safety' reasons.

One of the fake cops also showed his police I-card to convince her of the veracity of his statement.

"The lady told us that she used to tell other women to remain alert about such fake policemen. But even though the two accused appeared to be authentic policemen, the lady got convinced," said Tomar, who believes that people having a religious inclination, woman and senior citizens become easy targets for such crooks.

"We have observed that a majority of the incidents take place near temples, Jain derasars, vegetable markets and other crowded places," said Tomar.

To spread awareness among citizens, police will distribute pamphlets at religious places, put loudspeakers at main junctions and roads of the western part of the city.

"We are also planning to put posters at major junctions and markets which will tell the citizens what to do if approached by such fake policemen," Tomar said. 

According to Tomar, the fake policemen dress like cops, cut their hair like them and wear red shoes to look like cops.

To impress their victims, they even talk like policemen and sometimes force them to hand over the ornaments for their own safety.