Two held for posing as I-T officers, stealing Rs 48 lakh from tutor in Delhi

When the police began investigating the case, they came across CCTV footage of a Hyundai Santro car, on which the suspects had arrived. That helped the police arrest Sood and his associate, Praveen Kumar, 30.

Two men were arrested on Saturday for posing as income tax (I-T) officials and stealing Rs 48 lakh cash from the home of a private tutor in west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden on Thursday, the police said. The police have recovered Rs 22.45 lakh of the loot and are on the lookout for two more suspects.

Delhi Police have recovered Rs 22.45 lakh of the loot and are on the lookout for two more suspects. (PTI / Representative Image)

Monika Bhardwaj, deputy commissioner of police (west), said Sood and three of his associates had entered the house of the victim, Inderveer Singh, on Thursday morning. One of the suspects, a woman named Neha, had facilitated the entry on the pretext of seeking information about the coaching centre being run by Singh.

Over the next couple of hours, the four persons had posed as I-T officers seeking to unearth “huge amounts of cash” from the house. “They showed fake identity cards, searched the house and Rs 48 lakh cash. They took the money, prepared a cash seizure memo and took the victim’s signature,” Bhardwaj said.

Asking Singh to visit the I-T office within the next couple of days to explain the source of the money, the four suspects left the house. “They took away the CCTV camera recordings on the pretext of checking the identities of the people visiting the house,” Bhardwaj.

When the police began investigating the case, they came across CCTV footage of a Hyundai Santro car, on which the suspects had arrived. That helped the police arrest Sood and his associate, Praveen Kumar, 30.

It came to light that the alleged mastermind, 32-year-old Nitin Sood, was involved in two previous crimes — a robbery of Rs 90 lakh from a jewellery shop in west Delhi’s Paschim Vihar and selling a plot of land using forged documents in outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy — both in 2015.

While Kumar is not a graduate, Sood is a graduate in Zoology, said the DCP. “Sood had earlier opened an ayurvedic medicine shop in Rohini, but lost a lot of money and was left in heavy debt,” Bhardwaj said about the motive behind the crime.

“One of his female friends, Neha, informed him about the cash in the victim’s house, after which they decided to strike there,” she added.

The police are now on the trail of Neha and a fourth suspect.