Hyderabad police nab notorious cop imposter in Madhapur, seize pistols

HYDERABAD: The sleuths of SOT-Shamshabad zone, along with Madhapur Police, nabbed a notorious interstate pseudo IPS/colonel, extortionist and cheating offender from Madhapur on Tuesday. They recovered a few 7.65 country-made pistols, nine live rounds and other items from the accused.

Naga Raju Karthik Raghu Varma (25), who hails from West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, moved to Hyderabad in 2016. There were multiple cases including car theft registered against him. After serving jail time, he joined as a supervisor at a security agency where he met an ex- army officer and gained knowledge of weapons, army ranks, uniforms, badges etc.

He later purchased a uniform of the PARSAF regiment of Major rank. Karthik also informed his family that he was inducted into the Army.

Naga Raju Karthik, in this disguise, opened an army training camp illegally, kidnapped people for money, raided houses for cash and also attended inaugural events for which he charged lakhs of rupees.

Investigation revealed that the accused was passionate about the police department from his college days. Previously, he had appeared for constable and sub-inspector examinations as well but was unable to get a job in the police department. The disguise of an army officer excited him and he was addicted to earning easy money by cheating innocent people. He hatched plans to extort money from different places of Hyderabad by introducing himself as a special operation team (SOT) officer.