Ghaziabad: Ex-home guard arrested for impersonating as a cop, supplying drugs
The Ghaziabad resident allegedly pretended to be a police officer and extorted money from roadside vendors and unauthorised establishments, police said
The Ghaziabad police on Monday arrested a former home guard who allegedly pretended to be a police sub-inspector and was also involved in extorting money and supplying drugs in the city. He was arrested near ABES College at NH-24 when he was riding on his two-wheeler.
According to the police, the man, Pankaj Sharma, is from Pratap Vihar in Ghaziabad and had been a home guard earlier. However, he was suspended over accusations of indiscipline and extortion a couple of years ago, they said.
“Since then, he had been meeting people pretending to be a police sub-inspector. He had been extorting money from roadside vendors and unauthorised establishments. He also owns a two-wheeler with the words ‘police’ on it so that people think he is a police officer,” said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).
Sharma’s two-wheeler was also seized by the police after they found a bag carrying 5kg cannabis in the storage area under the seat. This, according to officials, was allegedly supplied by Sharma to various customers and city residents.
“We have booked him under provisions of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and under Section 170 of the IPC for impersonating a public servant,” Tomar added.
He added that the police will soon launch a drive to nab persons impersonating police and mediapersons in the city. Tomar added that a drive will also be launched soon against fake special police officers (SPOs) as well.
He said he is inquiring into a case where an SPO wrote to a bank demanding some services and used a letterhead. The drive, he said, will be launched by police with participation from residents’ welfare associations, civil defence and other organisations to weed out people pretending to be SPOs, mediapersons and government servants.
“The drive will be launched soon. We are also getting new identity cards made for SPOs and their credentials will be checked and verified before handing them the cards in the new format. The old cards will be invalidated,” he said.
