Ghaziabad police detains man for faking robbery to avoid loan repayment

Initially, the accused claimed that robbers dressed him up and fled with ₹20,000, but admitted to staging the incident during police interrogation

The Ghaziabad police detained a 58-year-old man on Saturday after discovering that he faked a house robbery on September 5, during which he claimed robbers dressed him as a woman and put makeup on him, said officers. The police later found no evidence of the alleged crime, and the man confessed that he orchestrated the incident to evade repayment of a loan.

The accused detained by police on Saturday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

According to investigators, the man, identified as Vinod Kumar Rai, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, initially reported to police that two robbers broke into his house, dressed him in his wife’s red saree, applied makeup, and filmed the act before fleeing with ₹20,000. Assistant commissioner of police (Sahibabad) Rajneesh Upadhaya said that police began investigating the case by scanning CCTV footage in the area, but no signs of the alleged robbery were found.

“When we questioned the complainant, he broke down and admitted that he staged the fake robbery. He dressed himself in his wife’s red saree, put on makeup, tied himself up, and took selfies to make the incident look real. He had then raised an alarm and alerted neighbours to establish that two unidentified individuals robbed him,” said ACP Upadhaya.

Upon further questioning by investigators, Rai revealed his motive for staging the incident. “His elder son passed away in 2021, and he has been distressed since. He works in a private company earning a monthly salary of ₹20,000, which had been delayed. His younger son had taken a ₹60,000 loan from a finance company, and they were pressing for repayment, threatening to jail his son if the instalment was not paid on time. Rai planned the fake robbery to buy time from the finance company while posing as a victim,”ACP Upadhaya added.

The ACP noted that during the incident, Rai’s wife and son were out of town, leaving him alone at home. Police said that they will submit a report to the court regarding the false report made by the suspect, following which the suspect could be charged.