Gang inspired by Special 26 busted, 4 people held

New Delhi: The Delhi police on Saturday arrested four members of an “Irani gang,” who used to pose as Crime Branch and CBI officers and steal jewellery from aged women.

The gang members were inspired by the Akshay Kumar-starrer Special 26 and while they posed as cops, at least two of them used to wear ‘safari’ suits, as worn by the police officers in ‘mufti’, said DCP (West) Vijay Kumar. Two of the arrested accused, are wanted in two separate cases of MCOCA case by Mumbai police’s crime branch, he said.

The gang members preyed on elderly women or men, preferably walking down a lonely street. One of them used to approach the victim posing as a cop and narrate a story about a murderer or a notorious robber or chain snatcher being on the prowl in the crime-prone area, the police said.

A second member of the gang would then arrive wearing a heavy gold chain and he would be cautioned by the ‘cop’ against wearing gold. He used to promptly remove his gold chain and watch and hand it over to the cop for safekeeping. The victim, who would have been fooled by now, used to hand over their valuables and the disguised cop used to wrap it in a cover and hand it back, said the officer. There was a catch. While conversing with the victim, they used to replace the original jewellery with artificial ones By the time, the victim realised that they had been robbed, the accused would have disappeared from the spot, he said. On April 9, a 74-year-old lady Ramesh Kumari Verma approached the police with a complaint that while she was going with her husband, two policemen approached them. The accused replaced their original ornaments with fake ones. Following several such incidents of cheating by the gang in west Delhi as well as adjoining areas, a team was formed under the supervision of Jagjit Sangwan, ACP(Operations, West).

On Friday, the team received information about the gang members assembling at Masjid Lane Bhogal to proceed further. With the arrest of the four accused, Naasir Hafiz Khan, Asu Shahjman Saiyad, Barkat Ali and  Zafar Abbas Amjad Seikh, police claimed to have solved more than 100 cases of Delhi, Gurgaon and other states.

 Naasir, who is the kingpin of the gang, and Zafar are wanted in MCOCA cases in Mumbai. Naasir told police that after he was charged with MCOCA, he shifted to Delhi from Mumbai with the help of his in-laws.