The city police nabbed two persons on Monday night for impersonating as police officials and extorting money from young couples, especially college students, who visit beaches and other tourist spots for some amorous moments.
The accused were identified as Ichapuram Gopi (30), a native of Srikakulam district, and Karri Jagadish (20), a native of Vizianagaram district.
Both of them would visit the tourist spots or beaches such as Yarada and Rushikonda and on spotting a young couple, would get close and click their pictures or videos. Later, they would approach the couple and introduce themselves as police officials in mufti and threaten to expose the couple to their parents and family members, by hosting the pictures in social media sites.
“In the process, they would demand money for deleting the pictures,” said DCP (Zone –I) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy.
The duo has been engaged in this crime since January and the police have received four such complaints. They also pasted a ‘police’ sticker on their bike.
“They would have extorted from many people, but so far we have received complaints from four such couples. While from one couple they extorted about Rs. 2,000, the others paid about Rs. 500 each,” said the DCP.
Old criminal
Ichapuram Gopi has earlier been involved in a bike theft and the theft of a computer in Hyderabad. A case is also registered at Marredpally police station.
The bike was stolen from Visakhapatnam and sold in Khammam and in Hyderabad he stole the computer from his friends’ flat, where he was staying, said Mr. Ravi Kumar Murthy.
Attempts suicide
Gopi attempted suicide in the police station on Monday night. “He complained of stomach pain and the police officers present at Arilova police station gave him a strip of Pantocid-L, containing 10 tablets. He gulped all of them and fell sick. We immediately moved him to a corporate hospital and after a stomach wash he was certified fit,” the DCP said. However, sources said that the accused managed to smuggle a few sleeping pills through the friends who had come to visit him at the station and gulped the pills to confuse the police.
DCP says the arrested used to extort money from couples at beaches and other tourist spots