Police busted a gang that committed robbery by posing as fake Income Tax officers, arrested 8 accused, seized property worth more than Rs 1 crore 35 lakh.

Within 48 hours, the joint police teams of Dhar and Khandwa have succeeded in arresting 8 accused including the main accused. Police have seized property worth approximately Rs 1 crore 35 lakh 57 thousand from the accused, including gold jewellery, cash and the vehicle used in the crime.

The matter came to light on March 13

On March 13, the complainant lodged a report in the police station Bagh that at around 9:30 in the morning, some unknown miscreants arrived at his house posing as fake Income Tax officers, took him hostage, staged a fake raid in the house and looted gold jewelery and cash and ran away. In this regard, a case was registered under BNS in Police Station Bagh and investigation was started.

A similar incident took place on March 12 also.

During investigation by the team, it came to light that a similar incident was also committed on March 12 in village Pamakhedi police station Narmadanagar district Khandwa. Taking the incident seriously, under the direction of Inspector General of Police Indore Rural Zone Anurag, Deputy Inspector General Indore Rural Zone Mr. Manoj Kumar Singh and Deputy Inspector General Khargone Siddharth Bahuguna, in coordination with Khandwa Police, CCTV footage of the vehicle used in the incident was obtained and joint teams of Dhar and Khandwa were formed and the search for the accused was started.

Used to do recce of houses and see the location of the house

Police investigation revealed that the gang used to do systematic recce of the houses and collect important information including the location of the house, condition of the family, presence of vehicles and property in the house and other important information. After this, he used to enter the houses in a planned manner pretending to be an officer of the Income Tax Department and carry out the robbery by intimidating them.

Police uniform also recovered

Investigation also revealed that a black Scorpio vehicle was used in a similar manner in the incident that took place in Khandwa district on March 12 and the second incident that took place on March 13. Police had already received information about this vehicle, which established a connection between the two incidents. The police showed proactivity and laid blockade and siege in the surrounding police station areas and border districts. On getting information about police activity, the accused, while running away with the stolen goods, left the black Scorpio vehicle in a deserted forest and fled in another vehicle. From the documents found by the police during the search of the Scorpio vehicle, the owner of the vehicle was found to be Shehzad father Roshan Khan resident of Bairachha, who turned out to be the mastermind of this entire incident. Police uniform has also been recovered from the vehicle.

Looted property recovered

After this, joint police teams raided the possible hideouts and confirmed the identity of the accused. Out of these, 8 accused were arrested and the looted property was recovered. When interrogated by the police, he also admitted to causing the incident in Khandwa district. During interrogation, the names of Sanjay Sharma, Naseer, Ranjeet and Shehzad have emerged as the main members of the gang, against whom previous criminal records have also been found.
Preliminary investigation has also revealed that a total of 14 accused were involved in the Dhar incident and 16 accused in the Khandwa incident, out of which 10 accused were equally involved in both the incidents. Whereas some accused are providing vehicles and other support at the local level.

Intensive interrogation of the accused

The arrested accused include Abid father Mubarik Shah, Ayyub Shah father Nizamuddin Shah, Dinesh father Rukhdiya, Dilip father Ramchandra Ahirwar, Shahzad father Roshan Khan, Ramesh father Gajriya Mori, Raja alias Abdul Ghaffar father Abdul Hameed Khan and Narsingh father Bhalia Baghel. The accused, along with their other absconding associates, have accepted the incident and carrying out the above mentioned incidents in Khandwa district. The police are also intensively interrogating the accused in connection with similar incidents in other districts of the state, due to which there is a possibility of uncovering other incidents.