CHENNAI: City Police on Friday arrested five men who posed as Mumbai Police over phone and swindled around Rs 49,000 from a city man as part of a 'courier scam' claiming that a courier he sent contained drugs.

The victim, J Velmurugan (41) of Kolathur is working as a manager in a private firm.

On April 1, he had received a phone call inw which the caller claimed to be speaking from Fedex courier's Mumbai branch and a parcel sent from Mumbai to Taiwan contained drugs.

The caller said that Mumbai police have taken over investigations and after negotiations made him deposit Rs 49,324 to a bank account.

After realising that he was conned, Velmurugan filed a complaint at Kolathur police station after which a team conducted investigations.

Police arrested Mohammed Azharuddin (26) of Mugalivakkam, K Rajkumar (56) of Guduvanchery, M Ganesh Raj (26) of Kolapakkam, C Ebenezer (24) of Kotturpuram and V Rathinaraj (48) of Maduravoyal for their alleged involvement in the crime.

The gang ran an office from where they placed phone calls to unassuming victims pretending to be Mumbai police and threatened them.

All five of them were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.