Five held for ‘posing as Anti-Corruption Bureau officials’

Thane Police arrested five men for allegedly impersonating Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials and beating up a coaching centre owner in order to extort money from him. The accused have been arrested from Andheri on Monday, police said.

According to Naupada police, complainant Alwin Xavier, 39, approached them after five men had allegedly beaten him up at his coaching class on Veer Savarkar Road on April 28. “Xavier runs the Excel Commerce classes. On April 28, four men approached him and had identified themselves as ACB officials. They told him that they would conduct a raid on his coaching centre premises,” an officer privy to the case said. He added, “These men asked Xavier to meet their senior officer and pay him some money. When Xavier denied, they had beaten him up and threatened before leaving that they would return with more back-up for the raid.”

When the men did not come back, Xavier had realised that they were not ACB officials and approached the Naupada police. “He had seen the men but could not remember their specific details. However, we started looking for them using our informers’ network. As we managed to find the CCTV footage of one of the accused, we identified him and arrested all the accused,” said a senior officer privy to the case.

“The accused had been driving an XUV that had ACB’s initials on it. We have seized the vehicle. They had been posing as ACB officials for sometime and confessed to their crime,” the officer added.