Goa (INDIA): Fake policemen robbing tourists and women has emerged as a major challenge for the police in India's most popular beach tourism destination, Goa. When Ravikumar Prajapati (48) from Karnataka, was suddenly accosted by three authoritative sounding ‘plain-clothed' policemen in March this year and asked to accompany them to the nearest police station for carrying $ 60,000 cash, he did not question their genuineness. Returning home after conducting a business transaction in Goa, Prajapati thought that he would be let off after establishing the source of the money, only to find that he was thrown out of the ‘police' car and his money robbed. Police now believe, Prajapati is just one of the dozens of victims of a ‘fake police' gang which essentially comprises of con-men from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa, who habitually poach on tourists and women. “They target women who wear gold ornaments and tourists. Invariably they pose as policemen showing fake identity cards and rob their victims,” deputy inspector general of police Ravinder Yadav told Bikyamasr.com. While Prajapati was robbed and outsmarted by three cons, in November last year, a local resident Ratnabai Polyekar from Sangolda, 10 kms from the capital Panaji, was gypped with a smoothly executed old school ‘sleight of the hand' trick. “I was standing outside my house in the morning when two young persons came to me and said that there were robbers about and I should not be wearing gold on me. They gave me a piece of paper in which I was told to keep the gold,” Ratnabai said in her police statement. When she unwrapped the same piece of paper on reaching home, she found a few pebbles and glass bangles, instead of a gold chain and her gold bangles. Yadav said that the gang, none of whose members have been caught yet, operate in Goa as well as neighboring Maharashtra and Karnataka, where cases with a similar modus operandi have been reported. While nearly a dozen cases have been reported to the police in Goa over the last two years, officials fear that they may be several instances where victims may have not come forward to register the offence. Drunk tourists in Goa are one of the most sought after ‘target audience' for this gang, which is fast being known as the ‘Iranian gang', because of the presence of a few Pathans and long naturalized Baluchi tribesmen, in addition to the more indigenous comrades. In 2009, four drunk unsuspecting tourists from Maharashtra were robbed off their cards, $ 900 in cash by the fake police, indicating that the gang may have been at work even four years ago. The police have now issued an advisory asking people at large to keep the police, the fake ones i.e. at an arm's length. “They should not interact with any person who poses as police personnel, specially, if the said person is in civil clothes. There are no directives issued by the police regarding banning of wearing of gold ornaments by members of public, in public places,” the advisory states.
