Men posing as CBI sleuths raid house, steal phone, jewels

ASSAILANTS HELD TWO WOMEN AND A CHILD HOSTAGE AT GUNPOINT, TIED THEM, FLED WITH JEWELLERY OF ~20LAKH

It started like any other day at jeweller Nawal Kishore Khandelwal’s home in Karol Bagh; he and his two sons left for their shop in Chandni Chowk, the women worked through morning chores and as they settled in for the afternoon, a man in khaki rang the bell.

“My wife opened the door and the man identified himself as a CBI official. Five more men with him told her that they had come to raid the house. Before my wife could understand anything, the men pushed her inside,” said Khandelwal.

For the next 10 minutes — shortly after 1.30pm — the suspects held a gun to Khandelawal’s 4-year-old grandson as they rummaged through the house before escaping with jewellery.

The police said the incident, which took place on Wednesday, was the first time suspects posed as police officers to carry out an armed robbery in a home in the middle of the day.

Mandeep Singh Randhawa, DCP (central), said a case of robbery and theft has been filed but suspects are yet to be identified.

“One of them put a pistol to Divyansh’s head and threatened to kill him if anybody screamed for help or raised an alarm,” said the 61-year-old jeweller.

Besides Khandelwal’s wife Urmila and the child, the robbers held his daughter-in-law Megha hostage. One of the men took the keys to a locker from Megha and ransacked it.

The hold-up would have likely lasted longer had Khandelwal’s other daughter-in-law, Preeti, not spotted it and raised an alarm.

Her scream’s led the men to flee. The attack left Urmila, 58, with a left shoulder fracture and Megha with a broken foot.

Police teams are collecting details about criminals who operate using similar methods, and are poring over electronic surveillance and human intelligence networks. Details of mobile phones active in the area during the crime are also being analysed.