Fake cops intercept Dubai fliers on WEH at Bandra, rob them

Mumbai: Four men, on their way from Bhendi bazar to the international airport to catch a flight, were subjected to a literal highway robbery when their taxi was intercepted at Kherwadi junction on the Western Express Highway on Tuesday night by men claiming to be from the police

Mumbai: Four men, on their way from Bhendi bazar to the international airport to catch a flight, were subjected to a literal highway robbery when their taxi was intercepted at Kherwadi junction on the Western Express Highway on Tuesday night by men claiming to be from the police.

Fake cops intercept Dubai fliers on WEH at Bandra, rob them

The victims were accosted, made to hand over their passports, forced to leave their taxi and get into a fake police car and then driven all the way to Goregaon where they were robbed of their luggage, made to part with their phones, cash and other valuables, their travails compounded when they also missed their flight.

The Kherwadi police—the real one i.e.—has now launched a hunt for the three men, unidentified so far.

The four victims--Mohammed Imran Sayyed (26), Mohammed Riyan (27), Mohammed Dhiyar (26) and Mohiuddin Aijaz (29) were on their way to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, from where they were to board a flight to Dubai on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. “All four were going to Abu Dhabi for work. Imran has an imitation jewellery business and he was going to get some material from Abu Dhabi, while the other three stay in the Naif area in Abu Dhabi, where they live and work with various private jewellery firms,” said senior police inspector Rajendra Mulik of Kherwadi police station.

The police said the four friends, all residents of the Bhendi Bazaar area, assembled near the Mandvi post office at around 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday and hailed a taxi to go to the airport. They passed through the Bandra Worli Sea Link and had just crossed the Gausiya Masjid in Kherwadi on the Western Express Highway when an SUV drew up alongside their taxi a little after 9 p.m.

“A man leaned out of the car and showed us a baton, similar to the one used by policemen, and called out to us, and asked us to pull over. The taxi driver obeyed and the SUV overtook us and came to a stop diagonally, blocking our path. Three men got out of the SUV,” Imran told the police in his statement. As the trio approached, Imran noticed that the man who stopped them was wearing khakhi trousers which further led him to believe that he was a policeman. The man asked the victims where they were headed and they told him that they were on their way to catch a flight to Abu Dhabi. The other two men then confiscated their cell phones and passports. When the victims protested, the trio threatened to arrest and throw them in jail for six months, the victims told Kherwadi police.

Over their repeated protests, the trio forced Imran and his friends into the SUV along with all their luggage and started driving further north, well beyond the airport, on the WEH. At a desolate spot near the NESCO Ground at Goregaon, the three men rummaged through all their luggage and found 1500 dirhams, 900 Australian dollars, 1400 Kuwaiti dinars and ₹1.20 lakh in Indian currency, which they then ‘seized’. The trio then returned the passports to the victims, took their cell phones and abandoned them on the road before driving away. By this time Imran and his friends had also missed their flight to Dubai. They approached the Vanrai police station at Goregaon and were directed to go to the Kherwadi police station at Bandra east, the scene of the alleged crime.

“We have booked the unidentified accused for impersonation, kidnapping and robbery under the Indian Penal Code. Footage from the CCTV cameras from both, the scene of the kidnapping, as well as the spot where they were abandoned, is being looked at,” said Kherwadi senior PI Mulik. The modus operandi of the trio suggests they are habitual offenders and inquiries are being conducted accordingly, said the police.

“Typically, those who pose as cops don’t give their victims much time to think. They act stern and start off with threats of arrest and action which intimidates a common citizen who has not had a prior brush with the law. If the victim does not ask for an ID card or show any other form of resistance within the first five to ten minutes, the accused’s job becomes easier. We are checking on the recent movements of certain repeat offenders with a history of such crimes to see if any of them were involved in this offence. We are making sketches of the accused based on the descriptions provided by the victims,” said another officer with Kherwadi police who did not wish to be named.