Men who posed as cops arrested, jewellery seized

NEW DELHI: A 27-year-old criminal who used to pose as a police officer to cheat people in the Capital and other states has been arrested by a special team of south Delhi police.

The arrested kingpin of the Irani gang, identified as Tabrez, was wanted for around 50 cases registered against him in Delhi, NCR and Maharashtra. Police have also arrested his associate, identified as Zahir Abbas Zakir Hussain Zafri.

With their arrests, the south Delhi police claimed to have solved four cases reported at different police stations.

A senior police officer said Tabrez and his gang mostly approached women. They would show women their forged police identity cards and advise them to wrap their jewellery in a paper as a precautionary measure to avoid becoming victims of snatching.

“Tabrez and his aides would convince their victims to keep their belongings in a paper and follow their advice. As soon as any woman removed her jewellery and starts wrapping them in a paper, Tabrez would trick the woman into handing over her jewellery to him on the pretext of showing her how to wrap them properly,” said the senior officer.

While the other cheats would keep the woman busy, Tabrez would swap her belongings with artificial jewellery. After that they would return the packet to the woman and advice her to keep it in her bag and open it after reaching home.

“The cheats would flee with the original jewellery. One such case was reported recently at the Malviya Nagar police station by a woman,” the officer said.

A trap was laid and Tabrez and Zafri were arrested with 2 stolen gold bangles, a gold ring and chain.