In this movie-style incident, a group of four people arrived at Mayank Bajaj’s house at the Mayfair Sonata Green building in Hiranandani, Vikhroli, posing as Income Tax officers. The incident happened on July 26 between 12:30 and 1:15 pm when both Mayank and his wife, Mona Mayank Bajaj, who is also the complainant in the case, were not at their house.
According to the statement given by the complainant to the police, the four of them showed a fake "search warrant" to the family members present at home, along with the fake identity card they were carrying in order to barge inside the house. They also wore formal clothes, making them look like government authorities later barged into the house and started their so-called search. While doing that, they also started checking their cupboard and found Rs. 1 lakh in cash, which they took along as part of their duty, "said an official at the police station.
Later, when Mona reached the spot and started inquiring about the situation, the accused manipulated their way out by narrating their fake story. The statement also says that when Mona tried to call her husband in their presence, her phone was taken away, which was only returned while they were leaving their house.
When Mayank reached his house, he first confirmed the matter with the Income Tax department, only to find out that the entire story was fake and they were duped.
"When the complainant approached us, we started the investigation only to realise it was done by just four people, but some more were involved," said the officer. While tracing the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, the police found one of the accused involved was also a driver working for Manoj for the past some years.
After acquiring the technical data with the assistance of the cyber police, the police started the search operation in several places, including Gujarat, Beed, Mumbai, Panvel, Raigad, etc.
Last week, the police managed to arrest four people after a series of search operations. They are identified as Dheeraj Kamble, 35 (the driver), Prashant Bhatnagar (54), Wasim Qureshi (38), and Ejaz Khan (27). While investigating the accused, the police found out about the other four, who were the actual masterminds. One of them includes Neeta Kamble, who has also been an employee at the Bajaj residence for the past 6 years.
"Neeta is the one who provided crucial details about their house to the others. She, along with the other three, is on the run. We have assigned two teams to nab the four, who are suspected to have left the city to hide, "confirmed senior inspector Vinayak Mer of Park site police.
The other three are identified as Nitin Kothari, Mariyam Appa, and Shamim Khan. The entire gang is said to have known each other for a while now and have apparently been making this plan for some time on the basis of the tip-offs from Neeta about the Bajaj household, confirmed the police.
