Gopalganj superintendent of police (SP) Ravi Ranjan Kumar on Friday did what actor Anil Kapoor had done in the 2001 movie Nayak.

In the movie, Anil, who had become a chief minister for a day, had dressed up as a Sikh truck driver and caught a government employee red-handed asked him for a bribe.

On Friday, Ravi, a 2012-batch IPS officer, dressed up in a kurta and pagri (headgear) and reached the Balthari checkpost on the district's western fringe. Ravi had received complaints that trucks coming from Uttar Pradesh without proper documents were crossing the check post after palms were greased. He wanted to see things for himself.

The exercise led to two arrests around 3.30am. "Two persons who were taking money from truck drivers have been caught and are being interrogated. It is a matter of probe whether or not the motor vehicle inspector (MVI) was present on the spot."

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said the MVI, Divya Prakash, was sleeping in a vehicle close by. Police sources said the SP and another policeman came to the checkpost on a bike and noticed the MVI was asleep.

He saw two people stopping trucks and taking money from drivers. He approached them and introduced himself as a transporter and requested them to allow two of his trucks, without proper papers, to pass. The duo, Ravindra Kumar and Arvind Rai, asked for Rs 4,500. The SP negotiated the rate to Rs 2,500. While the negotiations were on, the policeman with the SP called up Kuchaikote police station house officer (SHO), who arrived and arrested the two.

"The two claim they aren't government servants. This is being probed. Rs 44,000 was recovered from them," SHO Mahendra Kumar said. The MVI's phone was "out of range" and he could not be contacted for comment.