BHOPAL: In a crime whose plot resembled the story of Akshay Kumar-starrer 2013 Hindi movie Special 26, a group of men, posing as income tax sleuths on an operation to unearth black money, held the family of a government contractor captive in his house, before decamping with cash and valuables running into lakhs of rupees in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
The seven to eight men, who used a black SUV, stormed into the house of government contractor Rajkumar Malvi in the Bagh town of Dhar on Friday. Posing as income tax department officials, the masked men carried out the “search” inside the contractor’s house. After “seizing” Rs3 lakh plus of cash, gold jewellery and mobile phones, the men locked the contractor and his wife Krishna in a room and then decamped with the loot.
The contractor and his wife took some to realize that the men were fake income tax department sleuths and raised an alarm from the room in which they were locked, after which neighbours came to their rescue. However, by then, the robbers had left the crime scene in their SUV.
The police launched a probe into the incident and discovered that the same SUV had been used in an early morning robbery at the house of a wealthy farmer in the neighbouring Khandwa district a day earlier. Multiple police teams were formed, which cracked the two sensational crimes on Saturday and reached the accused. Three to five men, including the owner of the SUV, have been taken into custody so far.
The investigators have questioned the accused, which has revealed that they are part of a bigger gang which comprises members of a tribe from Shajapur district of the Ujjain division. Interestingly, one of the group members is believed to be a close relative of an assistant sub-inspector posted in the Ujjain district. “It could be a big gang, comprising 10 to 12 members, with local support and informers based in various districts of western and southwestern Madhya Pradesh,” a senior police officer told this newspaper on Saturday.
Importantly, it was just a week back that two youths who had posed as income tax sleuths from Mumbai were arrested in the Wardha district of Maharashtra while attempting a similar Special 26-style robbery on March 4.
Raided or robbed?
7–8 men posing as IT officials raided contractor Rajkumar Malvi’s house in Dhar
They conducted a fake “search” and looted `3 lakh+, gold jewellery and mobile phone
The gang locked Malvi and his wife in a room and fled in a black SUV
Neighbours rescued the couple, but the robbers had escaped
Police later found the same SUV was used in a robbery in Khandwa a day earlier
Multiple police teams cracked the case by Saturday, detaining 3–5 suspects
Probe suggests a 10–12 member gang from Shajapur with local informers