Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch on Friday arrested a ward boy working at the Breach Candy Hospital as well as a tiffin supplier for allegedly posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials and robbing a 70-year-old man of ₹10 lakh in Tardeo.
The arrested accused are identified as 40-year-old Rajvir Jagdish Valmiki, a resident of a slum in Cuffe Parade, who worked in Breach Candy hospital as a ward boy and 25-year-old Chaitanya Bharat Desai, a resident of Gandhi Nagar in Worli, who ran a tiffin service.
Police have recovered ₹3.25 lakh and a bike from the arrested duo and are on the lookout for three accomplices, who they suspect are also involved in the robbery. “We have got a lead on the absconding trio, based on the interrogation of the arrested accused,” deputy commissioner of police Balsingh Rajput said.
According to the police, the accused observed 70-year-old Vijay Tuslidas Gandhi, who worked for an angadia service (courier for cash in cash-intensive businesses) and collected money from his employer’s customers. Gandhi, who has worked in this business for over 30 years, is a resident of Navi Mumbai but has an office in CP Tank in south Mumbai.
The police said that on October 11, Valmiki and Desai approached Gandhi while he was standing at a bus stop in Tardeo with a bag containing ₹10 lakh. The two were on a motorcycle and introduced themselves as CBI officers who were investigating cases involving black money.
The duo then asked Gandhi what was in his bag. Gandhi, however, got into a taxi but the accused pulled him out. Around the same time, two more accomplices joined them and one of them snatched the victim’s bag from his hand and fled, a crime branch officer said.
A fifth accomplice was also present and saw the episode unfold but he kept his distance as he was known to the 70-year-old victim, the officer added.
Gandhi realized that the persons were not genuine officials and informed his employer about the incident. A complaint was filed with the Tardeo police station against unknown persons for cheating and impersonation. Unit 3 of the crime branch also began to conduct a parallel investigation.