Imposter trio robs man of gold chain, Rs600; two flee.
The timely response of a youth helped the police nab one member of a gang which posed as policemen and robbed people in the western suburbs.
Arup Dhara, a Vasai resident, had gone to Bandra on Monday for some work when three persons approached him. Introducing themselves as policemen, they told him to accompany them. But Dhara sensed something was wrong and refused to go with them.
The three men then threatened Dhara and told him that he would have to face dire consequences if he did not follow them. However, Dhara did not budge. They abused him and snatched a gold chain and Rs600 from him.
When Dhara raised an alarm, a passerby tried to intervene, but he was pushed aside. Dhara then alerted the police. A mobile wireless van was immediately dispatched. Following the details provided by Dhara, the policemen nabbed one of the accused the same day while two of his accomplices managed to escape. The arrested accused has been identified as Rajesh Gole, 36.
“The accused is being interrogated. We are trying to figure out if they are involved in other such cases,” said a police officer.
There have been a large number of cases in the past few months where people have been robbed or cheated by criminals who pose as policemen. In July, two persons were robbed of their vehicles at Vikhroli.
The accused in the case wore police uniform and then took away the victims’ vehicles.
A similar incident took place on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road where a person was robbed of his belongings by a criminal who posed as a policeman.
Fakes use bikes stolen from Nashik
The fake cops in Mumbai and Thane are fast workers. Imagine a bike stolen from Nashik at twelve in the afternoon being used by a fake traffic policeman the same night to rob a man of his car in Kalwa.
The police had sent the chechis number of a bike to the company’s headquarters in Haryana which gave them further lead in Nashik. “When we visited Nashik, we found that the bike had been reported stolen on the same day the incident occurred and a FIR had been lodged,” said Bhau Gavhane, head constable investigating the mystery of the fake cop who robbed Ravi Desale in June.
The Kalwa case is not an isolated incident. “There have been three cases in the Vikhroli police station and one in Chembur and the bikes used in all these instances were stolen from Nasik,” added Gavhane.
According to the police, in order to mislead the police, the thieves while retaining the original numbers on the number plate merely modified the MH number 15 for Nashik to MH-05, 04 or 12 which are the registration numbers for Thane and Pune.
“I can only hope that the police will soon find the thieves who robbed me,” said a hopeful Desale.
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