'Gang of 8' held for impersonating cops, conducting fake raid on insurance office in Delhi's Laxmi Nagar

New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Delhi Police on Tuesday busted a gang in the national Capital and nabbed eight robbers who posed as cops to conduct a robbery in Laxmi Nagar area.

The cops arrested eight accused and recovered several damning materials from their possession including their laptops, mobile phones, vehicles and also the robbed cash.

The eight robbers impersonated as personnel of the Special Staff Unit of the Delhi Police and raided an insurance policy office in Laxmi Nagar recently.

They were nabbed after a complaint was lodged by a person named Salman and the police began the probe. The police scanned the CCTV footage and conducted surveillance to identify the accused.

According to police, four individuals posing as officers of the Delhi Police’s Special Staff Unit entered Salman’s office and robbed him of his mobile phone and laptop.

Thereafter, they forcibly took him away in a Hyundai Venue car, physically assaulted him, and extorted a total of Rs 1.5 lakh from him, including Rs 70,000 — transferred to an account — under the threat of falsely implicating him in a fabricated insurance case.

The police team, acting on credible technical inputs, apprehended five absconding accused a day later from Noida Link road, while they were travelling in the stolen Hyundai Venue car.

Subsequently, three more accused persons involved in the robbery were arrested from various locations across Delhi in a joint operation conducted by the Special Staff/East District and PS Laxmi Nagar.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused Hunny Kumar, a former employee of the complainant, had provided inside information to key accused Sunny Sharma. Sunny Sharma then mobilised his associates to execute the robbery. Sunny has previously been arrested in a cyber fraud case in Ghaziabad.

Accused Hunny Kumar also disclosed that he harboured personal grudges against his former employer and thereby hatched a conspiracy with other accused to execute a robbery.

The group impersonated police personnel to intimidate the victim and extort money, falsely threatening to implicate him in a fabricated insurance fraud case.

Meanwhile, the East District Police also urged the public to stay cautious and verify the identity of individuals claiming to be police officers, especially in offices or homes.

--IANS

mr/rad