Conmen can spot an opportunity to cheat people anywhere. As the Mumbai University exam scam continues to throw up more names of students and officials who might be guilty, two crooks jumped on the chance to make easy money by extorting money from a former engineering student linked to the racket. What's more, one of the crooks is a former cop who was sacked after he was found guilty in six cases of housebreaking.

On Monday, the Bhandup police arrested the fraudsters - former constable Prafull Balkrishna Bhingarde (38) and his accomplice, Nilesh Atmaram Satam (38). They were caught red-handed extorting money from a former MU student Ajit (name changed). Ajit had completed a BE course from the university in 2004 and was aware of the exam racket at the Kalina campus. Ajit’s friend knew that he was in touch with one of the 127 students currently being probed in the scam, and he passed on this information to the two accused, who decided to use it to their advantage.