04 January,2025 08:12 AM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar Sharma
Accused has been identified as Uttam Keshav More, 53. Pic/Diwakar Sharma
A Dismissed senior police constable identified as Uttam Keshav More, 53, was arrested by the Azad Maidan police on Friday for allegedly extorting money from a pan shop owner in SoBo, impersonating a cop. The incident took place on December 30. More, who served in the police force for 18 years, was dismissed in 2008 for looting people in the city under the influence of being a cop. Police said More created terror among small-scale businessmen and people from whom he extorted and looted on multiple occasions.
More has previously been booked in four cases at different police stations across Mumbai, said a senior police officer, adding, "The fifth case was freshly registered on January 1 under various sections of the BNS for duping a pan shop owner of Rs 8,400."
On December 30, More accosted a pan shop owner, Suresh Ramdev Barai, at his shop in south Mumbai and asked for his license. According to the police, More posed as a crime branch officer. Speaking with mid-day, the senior officer said that More knows the ins and outs of how the police department functions and how to tactfully talk to people to get his work done.
"More flashed an identity card and identified himself as an officer from the crime branch. The poor pan shop owner got tricked, and he was bundled into a taxi and taken to Byculla. After reaching Byculla, More asked the pan shop owner to cough up R8,400. The money was paid through Google Pay to the taxi driver's mobile number," the officer told mid-day.
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Following the incident, Barai approached Azad Maidan police and registered an FIR. After the case was registered, Zonal DCP Pravin Mundhe formed a team to investigate the matter and nab More. Using the information given by the pan shop owner and other technical evidence, More was arrested and produced before a competent court, which sent him into police remand for five days.
More, who lives in Thane, often comes to Mumbai to dupe people by criminally intimidating them, said police. "Since he has worked in the force, he is familiar with the names of all the senior police officers in the crime branch and police stations, under whose jurisdiction he intends to commit crimes," said another officer.
