FAKE COPS HELD AFTER FLEEING WITH 12CR
Along with fake gun & ACP badge, the group of 9 men had conducted ‘raid’ at Vile Parle’s five-star hotel
The Vile Parle Police arrested nine men for alleged impersonation of policemen and raiding a Malad premises, following which they robbed around 12 crore from a Vile Parlebased five-star hotel. The incident occurred on February 17, after which the complainant approached the police and lodged a complaint. During the probe, the accused were identified as angadia and were nabbed on Saturday. All the accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
A senior police official said that a group of two men wanted to wire money valued at 12 crore through hawala and had approached a courier company to do the hawala transactions. Subsequently, the courier company which was given the job of hawala transaction were counting the money at Malad, when another group of angadia, who learnt about the hawala transaction, raided the premises posing as police officers. "The imposters claimed that it was a raid and seized the money being counted for hawala.
They also had a fake gun, fake ACP badge. Sometime later, it was revealed that the police raid was fake and the imposters robbed them of 12 crore," said an officer on condition of anonymity.
To settle the matter, both the angadia groups decided to meet at Vile Parle based five-star hotel, Bawa International, on February 17. During the settlement, both angadia groups decided to split the money in half, but this arrangement however, did not work out. Before the other party could gather what was happening, the angadia members who posed as police officers and the ones are given the contract, decamped with the hawala money valued at 12 crore.
Detailed probe revealed that the money stolen in question was hawala money, that belonged to a trustee of a temple
After the incident, the victims approached Vile Parle police and lodged a complaint against the accused persons. A detailed probe revealed that the money stolen in question was hawala money, that belonged to a trustee of a temple, who wanted to wire the money through the hawala channel in Canada, and of the 12 accused, police nabbed nine men. While five people were arrested from the first angadia group, the other four belonged to another group. Police said that more arrests are yet to be made in the case. All the accused were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for robbery (section 392), impersonation of a public servant (section 170), and common intention (section 34).