70-year-old NRI woman robbed by men posing as policemen in Gurugram

Unidentified suspects impersonating police officers robbed a 70-year-old NRI woman of her jewelry worth at least ₹10 lakh in Gurugram, India. Two other similar incidents were reported in neighboring areas. Police are investigating and have CCTV footage of the incidents.

Unidentified suspects have been booked for allegedly impersonating police officers and robbing a 70-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI) woman, who was travelling in an auto-rickshaw in DLF Phase-III, of her jewellery worth at least of ₹10 lakh on November 26, police officers aware of the matter said on Thursday. The victim, Shashi Bala, settled in Bangkok, reported the matter to police on November 28.

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The incident took place around 4pm, just a few hours after another victim, Sunita Yadav, 49, was targeted on Sector-4 main road around 2.30pm. The imposters allegedly used the same modus operandi in which they posed as police officers and tricked the unsuspecting women into handing over their jewellery, they added.

Investigators said that Bala came from Bangkok to visit her sister’s home in DLF Phase-III just two days before the incident took place. She took an auto-rickshaw to Sikanderpur Metro station as she wanted to go to Delhi. She barely travelled for 400 metres from her sister’s residence when two suspects on a motorcycle intercepted her, they added.

Both the suspects showed forged identity cards to the woman and the auto driver. One of the suspects allegedly took the driver away and asked for his licence, registration and vehicle insurance documents, while the other asked Bala to keep her jewellery inside her bag, citing a few snatching incidents that took place in the vicinity a few days ago, said the investigators.

Police said Bala opened four gold bangles, a gold chain, a diamond pendant and a diamond ring to keep them in her bag. The suspects took the ornaments on the pretext of checking them, wrapped them in a white paper, handed them back to her and soon left the spot, the officers added.

However, when she opened the paper to check them, she found fake jewellery inside.

On Bala’s complaint, an first information report (FIR) was registered against the suspects under sections 379 (theft) and 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code at DLF Phase-III police station on Tuesday.

Investigators said that they have come to know about two more similar incidents that took place in Sector-16 and in Sector-15A in Faridabad on November 27.

Subash Boken, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said they have CCTV footages of both the incidents. “We are trying to ascertain the identity of the suspects and will arrest them soon,” he said.