Delhi: Woman impersonates CBI officer, raids relative’s house, carries off lakhs

The woman wore a mask during the raid so the victim did not recognise her as his relative, police added. The three accused have been arrested

A 22-year-old woman impersonated a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer and raided her 57-year-old relative’s house in north Delhi, carrying off ₹3 lakh in cash and several lakhs in gold and silver items, police said on Sunday, adding that two men helped her in the raid. The woman wore a mask during the raid so the victim did not recognise her as his relative, police added. The three accused were arrested on Friday, police said.

Police scanned more than 200 CCTV cameras and tracked the accused to Uttarakhand. (Representational image)

The victim, Israt Jameel, who is unemployed, lives in Wazirabad. Police refused to identify the woman who masterminded the crime. She lives in Karawal Nagar, north-east Delhi, and provides basic medical treatment to pet animals in her neighbourhood and private tuition to children, police said.

“On July 10, around 7.30 pm, Jameel was in his house with his wife and two daughters, when two men and a masked woman – all wearing white shirts and black trousers – arrived on a motorcycle, entered his house and introduced themselves as officers from CBI’s special branch in Okhla. They said they had an FIR and search warrant but refused to show them to Jameel, saying they would take him to a police station later to explain everything. They broke the lock of an almirah and took out all gold and silver jewellery worth several lakh rupees and ₹3 lakh cash,” said a police officer associated with the case.

“When Jameel asked for a receipt for the seized items, and how he would recover the items, the impostors wrote down the details of the seized cash and jewellery items a notebook belonging to his daughter, and signed it under false names. The accused then fled,” added the officer.

Jameel went to the police, who registered an FIR on July 11 under sections of cheating by impersonation, dishonestly breaking open receptacle containing property, theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint, and criminal conspiracy, police said.

Police scanned more than 200 CCTV cameras and obtained the registration and ownership details of the motorcycle. The woman’s associates were identified as Keshav Prasad, 28, and Vivek Singh, 20, police said. “Through technical investigation, we tracked the three accused to Uttarakhand where they had fled with the stolen cash and items. Prasad and the woman were arrested from Mussoorie on Friday while Singh was caught from Haridwar. We recovered ₹1.75 lakh and 29 stolen jewellery items from them,” added the officer.

Prasad, a resident of Shanti Nagar in north-west Delhi, runs a food supplement shop in Haridwar while Singh, a resident of Johripur in east Delhi, is currently unemployed and is studying through the School of Open Learning, police said.