A police officer said on Thursday that a gang of fraudsters in India who had been running a fake police station within 500 meters of the city’s police chief’s home for eight months had been busted and arrested on suspicion of extortion.
At least six members of the gang, including two women, were arrested when a real cop spotted two uniformed men on Wednesday and their homemade rifles aroused his suspicion.
An investigation is underway in this case. “More information will be revealed,” a metropolitan police officer Srivastava told AFP.
According to DC Srivastava, the gang leader is on the run, but everything is being done to find and arrest him.
The mock police station has been operating for eight months. He was staying in a guest house located about 500 meters from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Banka Town, Bihar State.
The scammers employed men and women from this rural area, for about five hundred rupees (6.20 euros) a day, who made up the police station staff while they, the “officers”, wore uniforms with graduated insignia.
Many locals, who believed they were dealing with a real police station, were most likely victims of extortion when they came to file a complaint or seek help.
Incidents where scammers or gangs impersonate government agents, including police and military officers, are common in India.
The general fear of law enforcement authorities is that one rarely ventures into questioning one’s identity.
On the other hand, creating a police station from scratch is very exceptional.
