PATNA: Enacting the Akshay Kumar-starrer Special-26, seven imposters including a woman posing as CID officers extorted lakhs of rupees from traders before they were arrested from Bihar's Madhubani district.
Police said that the imposters--- all in the age group of 18-25 years--- laced with a walkie-talkie, duped ‘vulnerable’ businessmen of Andhramath police station area in Madhubani district close to the India-Nepal border. One of the cons identified as Jitendra Kumar Safi is even a graduate.
Before making businessmen their targets, cons gathered information from local people about them. They extorted money primarily from those traders who were not fair with their customers. They scared the businessmen with their fake 'CID' ID cards.
Officer-in-charge of Andharamath police station Dharmendra Kumar said that the outlaws used to scare the businessmen by accusing them of possessing narcotics like ganja and charas and banned cough syrup.
However, their luck ran out when a woman raised an alarm after cons started extorting money from her husband, the owner of a big grocery shop by making false allegations against him.
Exhibiting their audacity, imposters even took the woman and her husband to the police station to lodge a ‘complaint’ against them. But when the police verified their ID cards, all cards were found to be fake.
A car bearing the registration number of Delhi, a motorbike, a walkie-talkie and a board with CID painted on it, two mobile phones and six fake ID cards have been recovered, deputy superintendent of police P K Sah revealed. All imposters are natives of the Madhubani district.
While four imposters, Jitendra Kumar Safi (29), Arun Kumar Safi (19), Panaj Kumar Das (20) and Punita Kumari (25) are natives of Dhanushi Sarseema village under the Khatauna block area. Three other imposters identified as Rumanshu Kumar (19), Santosh Kumar (23) and Devendra Prasad Yadav (27) are natives of Ghormohna village.
Madhubani Superintendent of Police (SP) Sushil Kumar said that after the arrest of the imposters, at least 10 traders informed police that they had also been duped of huge cash by the imposters. “They may have been operating in the area for more than a year,” he said.
The police were trying to ascertain their antecedents from other police stations in the district and outside.
During interrogation, the ringleader Jitendra tried to convince the members of the gang that they were not doing any unlawful activities. “Hum log Sahi kaam kar rahen hain (Our actions are right),” a member of the gang quoted Jitendra.
The members of the gang used to plan their operation meticulous. “This was the secret of their success in their 'operation',” an investigating officer pointed out.