Delhi Police on Sunday arrested five members of a gang running a fake police unit and bogus income tax squad involved in a sensational 1-kg gold heist.
Officials said the 72-hour-long multicity operation exposed a nexus in which one individual duped people by posing as a government servant, while another claimed to be the OSD of the Public Relations Officer in the MP government.
After a 1,200 km-long interstate chase across Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Sonipat, Panipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Hisar, and Jind, police recovered 435.03 grams of stolen gold and ₹3.97 lakh in cash.
The operation involved scanning over 250 CCTV cameras, employing advanced technical surveillance, and deploying strong human intelligence.
Authorities also recovered five ID card holders and lanyards bearing “Delhi Police” used by the gang.
In a separate incident, a racket of phone snatchers linked to an international smuggling network was busted with the arrest of three men as police recovered 103 stolen mobiles from them, an official said on Friday.
Police said the gang allegedly targeted pedestrians using stolen vehicles with fake or concealed number plates. They would unlock stolen phones by exploiting predictable PINs and patterns, accessed UPI and digital wallets and carried out unauthorised transactions worth lakhs of rupees.
Police said the stolen devices were bulk-processed by receivers before being smuggled to Nepal via intermediaries.
