Former employee of grain merchant, 3 others arrested in ₹20 lakh loot case

Dadar police arrests four people for posing as CID officers and stealing ₹20 lakh from a Prabhadevi resident. Accused include security guards and domestic help.

Mumbai: Two days after an unknown man posed as a Crime Investigation Department (CID) officer and took ₹20 lakh in cash from the home of a Prabhadevi resident, the Dadar police arrested four people for the crime.

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The money belonged to Rajan Jadhav, a wholesale grain dealer, who had given the cash to Karan Balaya, his domestic help, to keep temporarily as the Central Bureau of Investigation was investigating him in some matters.

The four people arrested for the crime include Dan Singh Debi Singh Kaami, 42, a security guard who had posed as the CID officer, and Balaya’s brother-in-law Dan Bahadur Zora, 34, who stayed with him in Prabhadevi and used to work for Jadhav earlier. The other two arrested accused were identified as Lalu Singh, 37, Pratap Ratan Singh, 45. They both also worked as security guards.

The police were able to trace the accused after noticing in CCTV footage that one of them was limping. During the investigation, the police had learnt that one of Jadhav’s former domestic workers used to limp. The information helped them trace the accused and crack the case. “We already were suspecting the role of employees and servants of the owner, as without proper tip-off, it was impossible to carry out the fake raid,” said a police officer.

“We then questioned all the employees, including former employees, and learnt that a former employee and the brother-in-law of Balaya, Dan Bahadur Zora, was involved in the crime. He used to limp and had problems while walking. He used to stay in the same house in the daytime and go on duty at night. He gave a tip-off to Lalu Singh, Pratap Ratan Singh, and Dan Singh Debi Singh Kaami, all watchmen by profession. Kaami posed as the CID officer,” said the police officer.

The accused were arrested in Ghatkopar, Juhu, and Panvel. “We have recovered ₹10 lakh. They had divided ₹5 lakh per head,” added the police officer. The Dadar police team that cracked the case comprised assistant police inspectors Sagar Sagade, Bhagwan Paygan, Ajit Mahadik and Mahesh Kulte.

The police had earlier registered a case under sections 204 (personating a public servant), 318 (cheating), 319 (2) (cheating by personation), 332 (house-trespass), 351 (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insults with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.