New Delhi: It seemed straight out of the Bollywood movie ‘Special 26’. Seven men impersonating Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers barged into a businessman’s house on the pretext of ‘interrogating’ him over his large cash withdrawals from his bank and coaxing him to resolve the issue with a payment of Rs 5 crore, according to a report in Times of India.
The incident was reported from tony DLF Farms in Chhattarpur, Delhi. The imposters intimidated the businessman that they would carry out a ‘raid’ in his house.
As the businessman didn’t have so much cash in his house, the conmen waited the entire night at the man’s house and the next morning, they took to the bank for the withdrawal. As they were at the bank, the lawyer of the businessman alerted the ED after he got message from him about the ‘ED team’.
They fled leaving behind their cars
An ED team and cops swung into action and reached the bank. However, by the time they did, the imposters escaped after they got an inkling when the businessman’s lawyer sought to look at their identity cards. Some of the members of fake ED team, who were still at the victim’s house, also fled while leaving their cars behind since the gates were locked. The ED and the police officials have launched a manhunt for the imposters.
In a statement, the ED said that the businessman’s lawyer had reached the bank and questioned the fake ED officers, and wanted to see their ID cards. The fraudsters got suspicious and fled before they could be nabbed.
FIR registered by Delhi Police
The Delhi Police have lodged an FIR and seized two vehicles that belong to the accused from the house of the businessman. In a police statement, the businessman said that seven men had come to his house on October 21 night in two cars and posed as ED officers. Four of them were wearing masks and three were unmasked.
The ED said that the imposters asked the businessman about huge cash withdrawal from his bank account. They had also some cheques of the businessman’s old bank account and threatened to arrest him unless he paid them Rs 5 crore, the ED added.
The conmen were so confident that they stayed at the businessman’s house the entire night when he told them that he didn’t have enough cash at home. They took him the next day to the Kotak Mahindra Bank at Hauz Khas for the cash withdrawal.
