Delhi: 8 held for impersonating police personnel, robbing insurance agent

Eight men were arrested for allegedly posing as Delhi Police personnel and assaulting, threatening, and extorting the owner of an insurance office in Laxmi Nagar, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused conducted a fake police raid and extorted money and valuables from the complainant under the pretext of a fabricated insurance fraud investigation, the police said.

Hunny Kumar (31), a former employee of the victim who works in telecommunications, Sunny Sharma (28), a cab driver, and Ankit Jain (32), previously involved in two other cases, are the accused in this case.

Others also include Vikram Singh (35), a bakery supervisor; Rahul Gupta (27), a data analyst; Rahul Yadav (27), a gym trainer; and property dealers Anil Kant (33) and Jeetpal (42).

“The incident took place on June 26, when four men posing as members of the Delhi Police’s Special Staff barged into the office of Salman (31), who runs an insurance policy business in Laxmi Nagar. The accused allegedly seized his mobile phone and laptop and forcibly took him away in a car,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Abhishek Dhania said.

Salman was allegedly assaulted and coerced into transferring Rs 70,000 to an account, with an additional Rs 80,000 extorted in cash, under threat of being falsely implicated in a fabricated case, the DCP added.

A case under relevant sections of the BNS was registered at the Laxmi Nagar Police Station on June 28. The team tracked down five of the accused the same night while they were travelling on Noida Link Road in the same car used in the offence.

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Three more accomplices were arrested from different locations across Delhi.

During interrogation, it emerged that the robbery was orchestrated by Hunny Kumar, Salman’s former employee, who had left the job two weeks before the incident. He allegedly passed insider information to Sunny Sharma, who planned the fake raid.

Sunny Sharma had a prior arrest in a cyber fraud case registered in Ghaziabad, while another accused, Ankit Jain, has two previous criminal involvements, police said.

During questioning, the accused revealed that Hunny Kumar harboured personal grudges and provided key information to plan the crime.

The gang impersonated law enforcement to lend credibility to their extortion attempt, the officer said.