‘SP’ caught after bid to collect money from cops in Coimbatore

According to police, Kattoor sub-inspector Chinnapparaj received a call on the night of February 21 from the ‘policeman’. “The caller introduced himself as Superintendent of Police Ravikanth from Vijayawada. He claimed that his relative, who is on a visit to Coimbatore, had missed his money. He further instructed the SI to hand over Rs 5,000 to the person who would be visiting the station shortly,” police said. 

The SI, on suspicion, informed the station inspector Siva Kumar. Immediately, a check was done by calling the control rooms in Vijayawada, besides Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to ascertain if there is any SP serving in the name of Ravikanth. On coming to know there is no one by that name, police called back the phone number of the anonymous caller and found that it was switched off. 

However, as claimed during the call, a man came to the police station to receive the money and introduced himself as a relative of the Vijayawada SP. The police, who by then had confirmed that he was a conman, caught him red-handed. They identified the ‘policeman’ as Gopalakrishnan, 31, a native of Jeeva Nagar in Thoothukudi district. A diploma graduate in catering, the accused is now pursuing his MBA through distance mode from a university. His family is settled in Andhra Pradesh. 

Inquiries revealed that the accused was arrested by the Adilabad police in Andhra for stealing a policeman’s walkie-talkie by posing as a DSP.  After his release from prison, Gopalakrishnan was involved in similar offences by posing as a senior police officer in Madurai and Thanjavur districts.