He tried to extort money from a vendor and dragged him to an ATM; the victim raised an alarm and the accused was nabbed by locals
Impersonating a cop proved costly for this Mira Road resident. Taking advantage of the fear people have of policemen, the 29-year-old tried to rob a vegetable vendor but landed in the police net. The accused, Taufique Mofil Siddique, posed as a cop and demanded money from a 27-year-old man, who was returning home from the fish market in Malad on Monday.
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Accused Taufique Mofil Siddique
The incident took place in the evening, when Siddique spotted Kandivli resident Pravin Ramchandra Gupta at the fish market and started demanding money, threatening to book him under false cases if the latter refused.
“He started asking all sorts of irrelevant questions. He took me near Sainath subway in Malad west, where he assaulted me and pulled out Rs 3,000 and the two ATM cards from my purse and dragged me to an ICICI ATM centre near Patel market,” said Gupta, adding that he sensed something fishy then.
“He should have ideally taken me to a police station, but when he dragged me to the ATM centre, I got a little suspicious. I saw a few people waiting there and gathered the courage to inform them about the way Siddique was torturing me,” said Gupta, who also works as a liftman in Hiranandani, Poisar.
When the people started asking him questions Siddique panicked and tried to flee, but failed. The Malad police team arrested him upon reaching the spot.
Police says
“We have registered a case under IPC sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 170 (impersonating a public servant) against Siddique. He was produced before the Borivli Metropolitan Magistrate court on Monday and has been remanded to police custody till July 22,” said Sub-Inspector Hassan Mulani of Malad police station. He added that similar cases are lodged against Siddique in Colaba and Marine Lines.
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