In a dramatic case of impersonation and robbery, four individuals posing as police officers kidnapped a man in the Bhuleshwar area of Mumbai and snatched a bag containing ₹50 lakh in cash. After committing the crime, the accused abandoned the victim in Navi Mumbai and fled the scene. Following a swift investigation, Mumbai Police, with the assistance of Pune Police, arrested four of the accused within six hours from different locations including Pune, Thane, and Satara.
The arrested accused have been identified as Ajay Balkrishna Lokhande (32), Rewansiddha Rajaram Javade (27), Sagar Damodar Jadhav (29), and Vikas Ankush Dehale (38), all residents of Sangli, and Dilip Kashinath Dhekale (43) from Thane.
According to the police, the incident occurred around 7 PM on Saturday when the complainant was passing through Popalwadi area in Bhuleshwar. He was intercepted by four men who claimed to be police officers. They forcibly made him sit inside a vehicle and kidnapped him. The accused then threatened him with a knife and warned him of dire consequences. They snatched his bag containing ₹50 lakh and removed the SIM card from his mobile phone before dropping him off near a roadside in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. The victim was also warned not to return to Mumbai, failing which he would be killed in a fake encounter.
Following the complaint, an FIR was registered at Lokmanya Tilak (LT) Marg Police Station against the unidentified accused. The police launched a tech-based investigation which revealed the presence of two suspects in Pune. With the help of Pune Police, they were apprehended from Khed Shivapur. Their interrogation led the police to the remaining accomplices.
Acting on the information, police teams tracked and nabbed two more accused from the Pune-Satara Highway. Further investigation revealed the involvement of a fifth accused, who was later arrested from Shantinagar area in Thane.
All five accused were produced before the court, which remanded them to police custody till June 26. Police have recovered the getaway vehicle, ₹39 lakh in cash, and the knife used in the crime. Intensive interrogation of the accused is currently underway.