Inspired by Special 26 starring Akshay Kumar, a gang of seven people abortively tried to impersonate Income Tax officers to rob a family of cash and valuables in South Delhi on Sunday afternoon but rather landed in the lock-up. Flashing fake ID cards of Income Tax department, the the seven conmen barged into a house in Malviya Nagar to begin a search. Then they asked all the family members to surrender their mobile phones and get into one room and extorted Rs 20 lakh.
But as their unusual behaviour raised suspicion about their true identities, the victim family called neighbours who gathered in a large number and informed police. But before police could arrive, the locals thrashed the imposters and handed six of them to police; one managed to give police the slip.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, South District, Chinmoy Biswal, said, “The leader of the gang has been identified as Mitesh Kumar (40), who posed as an additional commissioner of Income Tax, and five others identified as Naunhyal (45), Yogesh (32), Govind (45), Amit Aggarwal (35), and Parvinder (21) who posed as Income Tax informers. The absconder has been identified as Kailash. They extorted Rs 20 lakh from the complainant and kept it in the Tata Safari car by which they came. The Tata Safari car has been recovered.”
The Additional DCP said Kailash, who is absconding, drove away in a Honda City car, which they had brought to the spot.
“The complainant said the men locked the house from inside and closed the windows and started taking out all the jewellery and cash. They also took out Rs 20 lakh cash from the safe and collected all the valuables at one place. The men had also told the family that raid has been conducted following a charge of tax evasion worth Rs 20 crore against the family. However, the victims suspected the way the men interacted with each other also as their acts looked suspicious,” said the senior officer.
They then sought help from their neighbours, who broke into the house and started questioning the officers.
“It was during stringent questioning that the men, seeing a huge number of locals, broke down and revealed that they had gained fake entry to rob the family. On this, the locals thrashed these men brutally and later handed them over to cops,” police said.
The men on interrogation also told police that they were inspired by Akshay Kumar’s Special 26 movie and, therefore, impersonated I-T officers to rob the family.
Police are now trying to check if the gang has involvements in previous cases with similar modus operandi, and efforts to nab the absconding accused are also being made.
Based on the statement of the complainant, police registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and have initiated probe.