Delhi: Conmen who targeted the elderly arrested

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday said they have arrested three conmen who duped people, especially elderly persons or women, of their cash, jewellery and

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Saturday said they have arrested three conmen who duped people, especially elderly persons or women, of their cash, jewellery and other valuables after entering their homes, either impersonating as police officers or their well-wishers.

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The alleged conmen would convince the victims that being their well-wishers they had come to alert them about raids at their house by different law enforcement agencies and help them shift the unaccounted money, jewellery, and costly valuables to a safer place from their houses, to avoid getting them seized by the raiding teams. They used to collect information about the names of the members of the family they planned to target from their neighbours, said senior police officers associated with the operation to arrest the suspects.

In less than two months, the gang targeted more than two dozen families across the city and made away with cash, jewellery and valuables worth several lakhs of rupees. The gang’s kingpin, Lakhvinder Singh,25, has been previously involved in 17 similar fraud, robbery, burglary and other crimes, 16 of which were reported in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and another in west Delhi’s Naraina, said deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur.

“While Lakhvinder operated on a white Apache motorcycle, which is commonly used by Delhi Police personnel, his two arrested accomplices – Sonu Kumar,38, and Sunny,38 – used to give him security cover in a Fortuner SUV or other cars. The Fortuner, a Honda Civic and Ertiga cars were seized along with the motorcycle, a fake police ID card, and stolen jewellery and R30,000 in cash were seized from them,” DCP Thakur said.

DCP Thakur said that the on May 27, Lakhvinder duped a 70-year-old woman of cash and jewellery worth R5 lakh by entering her Chhattarpur Enclave home impersonating as a police officer and friend of her son. “Lakhvinder entered the house calling out the name of the woman’s son and daughter-in-law who had stepped out some minutes ago. He tricked the elderly woman into believing that a police team was coming to raid the house. He convinced her to put all the cash and jewellery in a bag and then fled with it,” said Thakur.

Police had then registered a case. The DCP said that multiple investigating teams were formed to trace the suspects. The teams scanned CCTV footage and established the routes the suspects frequently used.

“We found that the suspects used to park the motorcycle in the parking lot of Arjan Garh metro station after committing the crime. They further travelled toward Gurugram in the cars. We also installed a tracker device in the parked bike to trace its movements in case the suspects managed to slip,” said a police officer, associated with the probe.

On Friday, Lakhvinder was caught when he came to the parking lot to get the bike for another crime. His interrogation led police to his two aides who were staying in a luxury hotel in Gurugram, the officer said.