With the arrest of three persons, the Delhi Police on Sunday claimed to have busted a gang of cheats known as Bhagam Bhag gang.
The accused were running six different agencies with fictitious names from different locations of the national Capital and had cheated large number of people on the pretext of providing domestic maids, according to police.
The modus operandi of the Bhagam Bhag gang was to send an 18-year-old girl to the targeted household only after taking security deposit. Once inside the house, the girl posing as domestic help used to slip away within half an hour or so from the house and not to be found again, said police.
However, the gang ran out of its luck once a complaint was filed against a gang member at Janakpuri police station by a resident of Greater-Kailash-I in South-east Delhi.
“The accused have been identified as Kajal, Ashok and Mukesh. We have received a complaint by Dr Anup Kumar, a resident of Greater Kailash, who was cheated of Rs 24,500 by a fake ‘Sonam Placement Agency’ having office at Shop No-224/3, C-1, Janakpuri on the pretext of providing domestic maid.
“He was initially contacted on telephone by the
gang who agreed to provide him a domestic help,” said Monika Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West district.
“On August 29 an agent Ashok came to his house with Kajal and took Rs 24,500 cash as security deposit on behalf of Sonam Placement Service and left the maid at his house. After 15 minutes, Kajal disappeared from his house. Flummoxed at the sudden disappearance of the domestic help, Dr Anup went to the address mentioned on the verification form, which was later found to be fake.
“During the course of investigation, it was revealed that a similar complaint of Rani Chaddha was received against the same accused having same modus-operandi with another name of fake placement Agency Manjul Maid Services,” said Bhardwaj.
“Acting on the complaint, the team gathered information and three gang members were arrested on Saturday from Nihal Vihar area and Mukundpur Part-II. The team is investigating about other crimes committed by the gang in West district and other districts of Delhi. During investigation, it was revealed that the Bhagam Bhag Gang members used to contact victims who were in need of domestic helps, then they used to go to their houses along with maids, receive security amount of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 from them and left the maid at the house of victims. After 1-2 hours, the fake domestic help used to disappear from the residence of the victims. They were running racket with six fake agency names,” said the DCP.
“Their interrogation has revealed that they had conned a large number people by applying the same modus operandi. We have expanded the probe to ascertain whether there are more such agencies involved in this activity,” said an officer involved in the probe.