The police of Navi Baradari Police Station, Jalandhar have arrested a ‘fake police’ gang. The gang used to impersonate as police officers and go out on bike at night and under various pretexts used to threaten and rob pedestrians and later used to flee from the scene. After their apprehension, eight stolen mobile phones, three bikes and a chisel were recovered from them. The apprehended accused are identified as: Karanveer Singh Karan, Sarabjit Singh Shenti, Amanpal Singh Rinku and Manpreet Singh alias Mann who are all residents of Kot Baba Deep Singh Nagar.
Reportedly, Karan and Amanpal would dress up as police officers by wearing police officer’s shoes and turbans and then a jacket, while Sarabjit would wear plain cloths. Allegedly, the accused gang used to sell glasses earlier and later began using drugs, following which they lacked funds and conspired to form a gang and loot people about two months ago. The accused have confessed that they have lost count on how many crimes they have committed in the past two months. The accused also confessed to have stolen a bike. Talking further they told that they even went to a labor's house during the day and claimed that he was caught tripling on his bike the previous night, so on the pretext of confiscating his bike they stole it and fled.
As of now, the police are investigating their connection and establishing other linkages. Police is also investigating who they used to buy drugs from and whether they sold them elsewhere. The drug angle in the case is thoroughly being probed.
It was also revealed during the probe that they would allegedly assault the passers-by, who mistook them for real police officers. The ‘fake police’ gang would threaten to lock these people up and snatch money and mobile phones from them. As a part of their elaborated plan, Manpreet would intervene whenever a fight broke out and then brainwash the victims and explain how demanding police’s duty was and ultimately guilt trip them by saying, “You’re a good man, don’t get angry if you’re being questioned.”
Around late midnight on January 13, Raj Kumar Sharma from Gurdaspur along with his friends Manpreet arrived at the city railway station via train from Delhi. They were walking along Ladowali Road when three young men approached them on a motorcycle, out of whom two were wearing khakhi turbans and policemen shoes. The bike-borne riders questioned the pedestrians about being out at such late hours and threatened them. Later they snatched around Rs 9,000 and an iPhone from them and fled.
Upon learning about the incident, the team of SHO Ravinder Kumar of Navi Baradari Police Station checked the CCTV cameras near the crime scene and spotted the accused and later apprehended them.