Fake cop snatches BMW, gets it towed, arrested

NEWDELHI: A former Indian Navy officer dressed up as a policeman to carjack a BMW sports utility vehicle from near the airport but was caught as the vehicle engine stopped a few kilometres later, with the keys left behind with the driver.

Bharat Singh, 49, who was a petty officer with the navy till 2001, told police he wanted the high-end SUV for personal use.

Singh hailed down the SUV to seek a lift around 11:45 am on Tuesday. After getting in, he robbed the car by pointing a knife at the driver, Khem Chand, who was to return to Agra after dropping the car owner at the airport, officials said on Wednesday.

“The robber threatened me that his knife’s edge was poisoned and he was carrying a bomb. So, I jumped off the car at the first opportunity, but made sure I carried away the key,” Chand said.

It was not clear how the BMW X5’s engine shut down, near Manesar, some 20km away. Chinmoy Biswal, additional DCP (south), said the robber was getting the car towed away by a tow-truck to his home in Mahendragarh, Haryana when he was intercepted.

“Since the ignition was on at the time of the robbery, the robber managed to drive it away. But when the car reached near Manesar, the engine happened to turn off. After that, there was

no way the robber could start the ignition without the key,” said a Delhi Police officer.

The officer is not being named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

According to Biswal, Chand — whose phone was also robbed and left inside the vehicle — informed police soon after the carjacking. “The first thing we did was to put the driver’s phone on surveillance as it was believed to be inside the car,” the case investigator quoted above said.

Delhi Police alerted their Haryana counterparts after Chand’s phone location suggested

the car was being taken to Haryana. “We requested the local police to ensure slow movement of traffic near the Kherki Daula toll plaza,” said the officer. At the toll plaza, authorities managed to discreetly apprise the tow-truck driver of the situation and requested his cooperation to ensure the robber did not get away. “The tow-truck driver used payment as an excuse to make sure the BMW was not taken any further and Singh did not get away. We were able to arrest the robber and recover the BMW by 4.30 pm the same day,” another officer said.