The Delhi Police has arrested a 36-year-old member of the Irani Gang for allegedly posing as a police officer of the Crime Branch and later fleeing with gold ornaments swindled from a jewellery store worker. The accused identified as Qasim Zafri alias Joju is a resident of Thane district in Maharashtra and he was arrested by the Crime Branch team of Delhi Police from Bhopal on Saturday. The Irani Gang is known to have a presence across India. They are also known for masquerading as police or senior Government officers and conning people. In most of the cases they have been found to operate in a group of two to four, police said. According to Monika Bhardwaj, DCP, Crime Branch, the incident took place on June 10 when the victim, who works with a jeweller in Karol Bagh was robbed allegedly by Zafri and his associates Habib, Shahjor and Sartaj.
“In his complaint, the victim was travelling in an autorickshaw from Karol Bagh to Chandni Chowk with a bag containing gold ornaments weighing 915 grams. At about 2:45 PM, when the vehicle reached a mall near Bara Hindu Rao, four men on two bikes arrived there and stopped the autorickshaw,” said the DCP. “They posed themselves as police officers of the Crime Branch while two among them started checking his bag. When the victim could not produce any bill and invoice for the gold ornaments, they directed him to go bring the bill from his shop and thereafter they fled from the spot with his gold ornaments,” said the DCP.
“A case was registered under Sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC”, said the DCP.
“The CCTV footage of the scene of the crime was analysed and dossiers of the previously arrested accused using similar modus operandi were checked which led the team to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh,” said the DCP.