Mumbai Crime: Duo posing as drug police loots woman, arrested

Complainant tells the cops that the two men were wearing face masks that had police logos on them

Mumbai Crime: Duo posing as drug police loots woman, arrested

Photo used for representational purpose. Pic/AFP

Three men impersonating as narcotics officers of the Mumbai police, looted a Mahim resident of Rs 1 lakh cash and a mobile phone, in the wee hours of Sunday. However, after the victim filed a complaint with the local police, the cops arrested two of them within an hour, but the third one continues to be absconding.

Amol Dhar

According to the police, around 3.45 am on Sunday two men knocked on the victim’s door and said they were from the narcotics section of the Mumbai police and had been sent to conduct a raid at his house. “The complainant, who lives with her family, opened the door and found two people wearing face masks with police logos on them,” an officer from the Mahim police station said. According to complainant Nazia Shaikh, one of them took her mobile phone while the other started searching their cupboards and other stuff but didn’t find anything. “Suddenly they found my purse which had Rs 1 lakh cash. I had kept the money for my husband’s surgery. They took the cash and asked my husband to come down and meet a senior officer regarding the money,” the victim has mentioned in her complaint.

“As soon as the duo stepped out of the house, I saw another person waiting outside. Then they escaped from the spot with the cash and cell phone. There was no police vehicle around,” she further stated in the complaint.

According to the police, the complainant reached the police station around 5 am and narrated the incident, based on which Police Inspector Suryakant Kambale formed a team led by Assistant Police Inspector Zhanak Singh Ghunawat to track down the accused.

“Acting on a tip off that the accused were going towards Dharavi, the team reached the spot and arrested two of them. They also recovered cash worth Rs 83,200 from them,” said Vikas Shinde, senior PI of Mahim police station. The cops have also found the masks the accused were wearing at the time of committing the crime.

Another officer said, “The accused have been arrested under various sections of IPC. They have been identified as Sarfaraz Ansari, 40, and Amol Dhar, 47. The third person, Imtiyaz, is still absconding.”

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