India News | Member of Notorious Gang Arrested

New Delhi, Jun 21 (PTI) A member of a notorious gang has been arrested for allegedly robbing a man of gold ornaments by posing as Crime Branch officials, police said on Monday.

Qasim Zafri alias Joju, a resident of Thane district in Maharashtra, was arrested by a Crime Branch team of the Delhi Police from Bhopal on Saturday, they said.

He belongs to the Irani gang which is known to have a presence across India, the police said, adding that the gang members are also known for masquerading as police or senior government officers and conning people.

In most of the cases, they operate in groups of two or four, the police said.

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, police said.

Zafri's accomplices are absconding, police said.

In his complaint, the victim alleged that while travelling in an auto-rickshaw from Karol Bagh to Chandni Chowk with a bag containing gold ornaments weighing 915 grams, four men on two motorcycles stopped his vehicle at the Bara Hindu Rao area.

Posing as Crime Branch officials, two of them started checking his bag. When the victim could not produce any bill or invoice of the gold ornaments, they asked him to go and bring the bill from the shop, police said.

In the meantime, the four of them fled the spot with the bag, the police said.

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 the Indian Penal Code at Bara Hindu Rao police station, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Monika Bhardwaj said CCTV footage of the area was analysed and dossiers of the previously arrested accused using similar modus operandi were checked which led the team to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

"Through technical surveillance, the location of the accused was traced to Budhwara in old Bhopal. On Saturday, our team laid a trap. Zafri was spotted in the market area and after a brief chase, he was arrested, she said.

During interrogation, Zafri confessed to his involvement in the incident and disclosed names of his other associates, Bhardwaj said.

The accused is previously involved in a number of cases registered all over India, the police said, adding that in 2019, he was arrested in Delhi in connection with three cases of cheating registered at Lodhi Colony police station.

Police are looking for absconding accused and recover the robbed gold jewellery.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)