Kalpetta: The Pulppalli police on Wednesday arrested a youth for posing as a special branch officer and attempting to extort money from a shop owner. The accused CM Muhammed Rafi, 23, of Tirur was arrested in a joint operation by the District Anti-drug Squad and Pulppalli police.

Rafi approached a shop owner and introduced himself as a member of the shadow police team. The youth then told the businessman that he was probing a complaint that the shop sold illicit liquor.

But feeling something amiss, the businessman alerted the real police. A team from Pulppalli police station with the help of the original shadow police team of the anti-narcotic squad took the youth into custody on Wednesday afternoon.

The youth is being interrogated as there have been many such complaints of impersonation under various police station limits in the district, police said.