Mumbai: The owner of a restaurant was duped of Rs 25 lakhs in broad daylight. Shockingly, two police officers were in on the robbery attempt. After realizing he had been defrauded, the businessman approached the police. The police have arrested the two officers involved. A gang of six had disguised themselves by arriving in a police vehicle. The incident has sent shockwaves across the police force.
All this happened to the owner of Matuga's famous Cafe Mysore. A six-member gang went to hotelier Naresh Nayak's house and extorted Rs 25 lakh from him. Claiming to be an officer of the Mumbai Police's crime branch, a gang of six barged into Naresh Nayak's house in Sion. The accused then fled with Rs 25 lakh cash from his house at the threat of their khaki uniform. The accused threatened Nayak to not tell anyone about the incident. Nayak then narrated the entire incident to one of his police friends. After talking to him, Nayak realized that he had been duped and lodged a complaint with the Sion police station.
The accused were identified as Babasaheb Bhagwat (50), Dinkar Salve (60), Vasant Naik (52), Sham Gaikwad (52), Neeraj Khandagale (35) and Sagar Redekar ( 35). The court remanded the arrested accused to seven-day police custody. Police suspect that some more retired policemen are involved in the gang. Both Babasaheb Bhagwat and Dinkar Salve were working as police drivers in the Motor Vehicle Department of the Mumbai Police. The accused, Salve, is retired and Bhagwat is working as a driver on the vehicle of a senior police officer.
Vasant Naik, who was part of the gang, was working as a manager at Cafe Mysore. He planned to rob Naresh Nayak as Vasant was fired a year ago. Because Vasant knew that a large amount of money was kept in Nayak's house. Sagar Redekar was roped in and they planned to rob Nayak. Sagar took Sham Gaikwad along in this. Sham then also roped in Bhagwat and Dinkar Salve, police drivers from the motor vehicle department, who were in touch with him. The accused reached Nayak's house in a police van and a private vehicle around 4 pm on Monday. The accused showed the police identity card and told Nayak that they were crime branch officers. "We have received information that cash for election distribution has been kept in your house," he said. The duo then searched the house and pulled out Rs 25 lakh from the cupboard. The accused threatened Nayak to file a case and intimidated him. The accused then demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore from Nayak to settle the matter. When Nayak said he did not have that much money, the accused fled with Rs 25 lakh in cash.
Nayak then approached the Sion police station after realizing that he had been duped. The Sion police registered a case checked the CCTV and found that police vehicles were used for fraud. The police investigated further and detained the two policemen on Tuesday night. Four other accused were arrested on Wednesday, police said.