New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) A gang of four men have been arrested in Rohini for allegedly posing as police officials and extorting money from people either in the name of any "violation" or "illegal activity", police said on Sunday.

The four identifed as -- Sagar, Praveen, Lokesh and Amar Singh, who earlier worked as security guards formed a gang during the lockdown period and decided to extort money from people by either threatening or blackmailing them, they said.

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The accused roamed in plain clothes and claimed to be CID officials but with their arrest, four forged ID cards including a fake appointment letter was recovered from them, police said.

According to the police, two constables were patrolling on September 17 evening when they were alerted by a few people about four men who allegedly introduced themselves as CID officers and threatened them while they were inside the Japanese Park.

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On seeing police officials, the suspects tried to escape but they managed to overpower all the four suspects after a brief chase.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) P K Mishra said, "On enquiry, all of them were still adamant and insisted that they belonged to CID Branch. When questioned, they finally produced an ID card with the ‘Delhi Police logo' and ‘Ashoka Emblem' inscribed on it. It also had “CID Government of India” mentioned on it."

"But, the constables found the ID cards suspicious and when they cross-questioned them, two of them said they were working with Delhi Police while the other two claimed they worked with CID department of Haryana Police," Mishra added.

But later, they confessed to having posed as police officials to extort money from public by threatening them, he said.

A case was registered against them at Prashant Vihar police station and all the four gang members were arrested, he added.

During interrogation, the accused also disclosed that they used to arrange forged and fabricated IDs from their accomplice Sandeep, police said, adding efforts are being made to trace him.

(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)