Delhi / Delhi Police arrests 5 for posing as CBI officials inspired by 'Special 26'

New Delhi: With the arrest of five men who allegedly duped people across states by impersonating CBI officers, Central district police claim to have busted the interstate ‘Irani gang’ which took inspiration from the Bollywood movie ‘Special 26’.

DCP (central district) Jasmeet Singh said the accused have been identified as Mohd Sabir (52), Mohd Imran (45), Anwar Ali (45), Shoukat Ali Jafari (55) and Mukhtiyar Hussain (35). “All the accused persons are of Iranian ancestry and their ancestors came to India several decades ago. Currently, they are residents of Irani Mohalla near the railway station in Bhopal,” Singh said.

All the accused persons are involved in more than 25 cases and have been declared proclaimed offenders (PO) in more than 10 cases. They are also wanted in several cases registered in West Bengal, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

“We received a call on July 27 that 300 grams of gold items were snatched by unknown persons after impersonating CBI officials at Bank Street in Karol Bagh. Five men approached the complainant pretending to be CBI officers and took gold chains on the pretext of checking his bag. We lodged an FIR and started our investigation,” Singh said.

Shoukat and Anwar were earlier involved in pickpocketing at the railway station by posing as hawkers, he said. “The men later formed a gang after roping in close relatives. They adopted a unique modus operandi for commission of crime in which they first identify a noted jewellery market in any state, get information about the supplier/agent/customers of jewellers and then target them by posing as CBI officers. Usually they approach the victim on the pretext of searching the premises, and they only recruit tall people with muscular physiques so they look like police personnel. All the accused persons used to go to the gym and take a high-protein diet to maintain their muscular body,” he explained.

After scanning CCTV cameras from Karol Market to Pusa Road, a stretch of almost one kilometre, they found the five accused fleeing the scene of crime.

“We sent our team to Bhopal and found that they were travelling by train so the data of passengers was collected from IRCTC. We found that all the five accused arrived in Delhi from Bhopal on July 26 and they had booked their return ticket for July 30,” Singh said.

“After analysing the IRCTC data, we found that they would be travelling from Bhopal to Allahabad. A raid was conducted and a train searched at Jhansi Junction in UP at midnight from where we arrested the five persons,” he said.

“Three gold chains stolen from the complainant were recovered from their possession,” Singh added. Police have also recovered seven phones and five fake identity cards of CBI officers.