The Charkop police have arrested eight persons, who reportedly took inspiration from the movie Special 26, posed as Income-Tax (I-T) officers and raided the residence of a businessman and decamped with cash worth over Rs 1.65 crore. The police team that was put on the job to trace the culprits also saw the movie to analyse how the crime was executed, sources said.
Those arrested have been identified as Paresh Goswami, Jagdish Mewad, Bharat Singalia, Bharat Begda, Kader Shaikh, Pankaj Chavan, Bala Aarsan and Yunus Shaikh. Mewad is the kingpin of the group.
According to the police, the businessman, who is the complainant, has been staying with his family in the Charkop area of Kandivali (W) for three years now. They used to stay in the Dharavi area earlier. The police later learnt that Mewad is a nephew of the complainant.
"Mewad had taken Rs 3 lakh from the complainant six months ago and started demanding more. When the complainant did not give in, Mewad hatched a plot with his friends," said an officer from the Charkop police station.
Mewad and his friends had made four failed attempts last month to commit the robbery. "Goswami, Kader, Aarsan and Yunus then watched Special 26 and decided to use the same modus operandi to commit the robbery. For that purpose, the group had taken a vehicle on rent from Chembur," the officer said.
On June 2, Goswami, Kader, Aarsan and others reached the residence of the businessman, claiming to be I-T officers. Yunus kept watch outside the residence. They were expecting the businessman to have at least Rs 15 lakh at home. In less than 30 minutes, they managed to decamp with cash and ornaments from the residence and left.
"The eight then spent the money to buy expensive wrist watches and bet on lotteries. Some of the accused have cases of mobile phone theft against them. They had planned to start their own online trading company. One person is still wanted in the case. We got our first clue when we learnt that Mewad used to repeatedly call up the complainant to check the status of his case," said the officer.
Interestingly, someone known to the businessman had kept a bag containing money at his residence for safe-keeping and later a real I-T raid happened there. "However, the person had never told the complainant how much money was kept in the bag. We would be informing the Enforcement Directorate about the same," an officer said.
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