A gang of three men, who allegedly used to dupe businessmen by posing as CBI officers, has been busted, police said today.
The trio, Ramesh Kumar alias Massy (61), Kishan Lal (64) and Rajender Kumar alias Raju (45) were arrested yesterday by the Crime Branch after a tip off that they would come near Karol Bagh Metro Station, police said.
Envelopes and bundles of newspapers cut in the shape of currency notes used for cheating innocent businessmen from nearby states have been seized along with the auto rickshaw which was used in the crime, police said.
The trio allegedly told police that they used to identify "soft targets" in busy markets in Delhi in the morning.
"After choosing the target, Kishan Lal who spoke almost all regional languages of nearby states used to befriend him by claiming that he has also had come for buying goods.
"After winning the trust of the target, Kishan Lal would signal his associate Ramesh Kumar who would be watching their activities from a distance. Ramesh Kumar would reach the spot and pose as Deputy SP of CBI," Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Chand said.
"Kumar used to then call their third associate Rajender Kumar, an auto driver for taking them to nearby police station.
"In the auto, Ramesh Kumar on some pretext would ask the victim to show the money he was carrying. He would then put the money in a yellow envelope and after some distance tactfully change the envelope containing money with a similar envelope containing bundle of papers and would then hand over this envelope to the victim, warning him to be careful in future.
"By the time the victim realised that he had been cheated, the trio would have fled the scene," the officer said.
The trio were involved in more than 30 cases of cheating in Delhi, Chand said.
Among the recent cases, on June 15, a person from Azamgarh, UP, reported at Karol Bagh police station that he was duped off Rs 50,000 while on Monday a businessman of Gurdaspur, Punjab, dealing in Surgical Instruments, reported at Kotwali police station that he was cheated off Rs 2.5 lakh in a similar way.
