In a triple robbery case in Nagpur today, fake cops looted people at Sharda Chowk, Khamla and Nandanvan.

Today, at around 11:30 am, 56-year-old government employee Eknath Pandharinath Vankar, while on his way back home from Maruti temple on his two-wheeler, was stopped by a policeman in front of Dhanwantri Clinic at Sharda Chowk, Nagpur. This cop, seemingly in his early 30s, told Eknath that there was a search operation going on by Nagpur Police to nab a group of drug peddlers. He then asked Eknath to take out his valuables like his gold chain, watch, etc. and put them on the former’s handkerchief, so that he could be searched properly. The cop then summoned another person on the road and asked him to do the same, which he did. Witnessing a man following the cop’s orders, Eknath too took out his valuables and handed over the same to the cop. Eknath was then thoroughly searched by the cop. While Eknath was being searched, the cop handed over the handkerchief, containing Eknath’s valuables, to the other man. As the cop didn’t find any drugs on Eknath, he was given the handkerchief back and was allowed to leave. After this, when Eknath went to his brother’s shop nearby and opened up the handkerchief, he realised that a 30-grams gold chain and a 7-grams gold ring of his were missing from the handkerchief. He then rushed to the Hudkeshwar Police Station to find out about the cop, who had searched him. Here, to his dismay, Eknath realised that he had actually been looted by a fake cop!

Eknath then took the police at the location, where he was looted. The police, as a part of their preliminary investigation, obtained the CCTV footage (of the time when Eknath was looted) from a daily needs shop nearby. Eknath identified the fake cop in the footage, who can be seen buying a water bottle from the shop. The police have sent the footage to other police stations in Nagpur, so that the culprit can be nabbed. Sub-inspector Nilesh Dhanraj Purbhe informed Nation Next that Hudkeshwar police had registered a case against the two unidentified culprits (the fake cop who looted Eknath and the accomplice, who posed as a layman and held Eknath’s valuables, when the latter was being searched) under Section 420, 419, 170 of the Indian Penal Code. The police are further investigating the case.

Not the only incident!

Similar incidents of fake cops looting people have been reported at the Pratap Nagar and Nandanvan Police stations too.

A victim at Pratap Nagar police station lodged a complaint that he was looted of a gold chain and a ring in the similar manner. The victim was told that there had been a robbery of Rs four lakhs in Khamla and the police were investigating the same. A police official at the police station, however, informed us that there were four culprits. Another victim at Nandanvan police station lodged a complaint that he was looted of a gold chain and Rs 39,000. The same modus operandi was used in this case as well.

Police have intensified their search operation to crack these cases of fake cops and have done bandobast near Hudkeshwar, Ajni, Sakkardara, Imanwada and Nandanvan police stations and the adjacent areas to catch the culprits.

Watch the CCTV footage of the culprit here