Mumbai, Sep 13 (PTI) The Mumbai police have arrested five persons for allegedly cheating a man by posing as crime branch officials and taking away his bag containing Rs 5 lakh here, an official said on Friday.
The incident occurred on Sunday morning when the victim went to deposit the notes in the Canara Bank’s cash machine in Khar west, he said.
“Soon after the victim came out of the bank kiosk after depositing some of the notes, two men approached and told him that they were from the crime branch and wanted to question him. They told him that they will take him to the crime branch office,” he said.
The accused forced the victim to sit in a car, where three of their accomplices were already present, and asked him from where he got the money. After taking the car through the western suburbs for some time, the accused then took away his bag containing Rs 5 lakh cash, he said.
After that, they dropped him in Santacruz area and fled away saying they wanted to nab a few more people, the police official said.
“The victim then approached the Khar police station and filed a complaint, based on which a case of cheating and impersonation was registered against unidentified persons,” he said.
The police launched a hunt and examined the CCTV footage from the area, he said.
“On the basis of technical inputs, the police traced one of the accused, Sandesh Maladkar (51), to Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district. A police team then apprehended him and recovered his motorcycle,” he said.
During his interrogation, the names of remaining accused persons came to light and on the basis of this information, four men were arrested from a hotel in Andheri, he said.
According to him, the four accused were identified as Prafulla More (46), Vikas Surve (39), Chetan Gouda (34) and Darshan Yagnik (43).
“Police have arrested all five accused persons in the case and recovered more than 60 to 70 per cent cash from them,” DCP Raj Tilak Roushan said.
The police also recovered a rented car that was used in the crime, he added.
During the investigation, it also came to light that eight cases were previously registered against accused Maladkar, while More is named in two FIRs, he said.
“It is possible that these accused duped some more people in a similar fashion – by impersonating as police officials,” Roushan said, adding that sections related to organised crime will be added in the case.
All the accused persons were produced before the court, which remanded them in police custody, the official said, adding that a probe was underway. PTI DC NP
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