3 arrested for impersonating police officers, robbing passengers in Delhi-NCR

Three men were arrested in Shikohpur on Sunday night for impersonating police officers and robbing lone commuters at night in Gurugram, Delhi, Noida and parts of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday. The suspects – Ramesh Kumar, Gangaram alias Sunny, and K Selvaraj, all residents of Trilokpuri, Delhi – used fake recordings of police communications to dupe the victims, they added.

According to police, the men allegedly offered passengers a ride and then robbed them at knifepoint, seizing money, phones and documents. They were arrested on Sunday night after robbing a man in Manesar. A Ford EcoSport, knife, cash and stolen documents were recovered, police said.

Investigators added that the trio targeted a passenger along the Jaipur-Delhi expressway in Manesar on October 12. Posing as police officers, they offered him a ride and threatened him with a knife, robbing him before throwing him out of the vehicle, police said. . The victim filed a complaint hours later, leading to the arrest of the suspects.

A senior crime branch official revealed that the suspects committed at least 50 to 60 similar crimes in Gurugram, Delhi and other cities in NCR. “The trio, after giving passengers a lift, played the recording on one of their phones, in which the loudspeaker could be heard instructing them to search the suspects and their luggage,” he said.

To maintain the ruse, the suspects played two recordings of wireless communication, downloaded from the internet, the police officer added. One recording gave the impression that the victim was being searched on police orders in real time, while the second falsely indicated that the suspects they were searching for had been detained elsewhere, police said.

“Following the ruse, the trio threatened the victims and threw them out of the vehicle, keeping their valuables. Most of the time, the victims avoided approaching the police about the incident in this scenario,” the senior officer added.

Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said the trio downloaded recordings of police communications from the Internet. “They have been active in recent months. Based on the information provided by the suspects during interrogation, we are reaching out to the police in Delhi, Noida and other places to share information about the crimes committed in their respective jurisdictions,” he said.

“In addition, we are also collecting information about how many cases have been registered against them at various places,” Kumar added.

Based on the complaint from the Manesar victim, an FIR was registered against the suspects under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Arms Act at the Manesar police station on Saturday.