Fake ED team raids businessman’s house, tries to extort ₹5 cr

Fake ED team raids businessman’s house, tries to extort ₹5 cr 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 26.10.2024 

New Delhi : In real life imitating reel, a team of seven imposters masquerading as ED officers seemed to have taken a cue from Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Special 26’ as they ‘raided’ a businessman’s house in tony DLF Farms in Chhattarpur, Delhi on an Oct evening, ‘questioned’ him on huge cash withdrawals from his bank and pressurising him to ‘settle’ the matter with a payment of Rs 5 crore. Since cash was not available, the imposters waited all night at the victim’s house and took him to the bank the next morning to withdraw the money. While the accused and the victim were at the bank, the ED was alerted by the businessman’s lawyer who received a message from the victim about the “ED raids”. 

However, before the enforcement team and the local police officials, who were alerted by the ED, could reach the bank, the imposters fled when they got suspicious after the victim's lawyer wanted to see the identity cards of the raiding party. Some accused still at the house of the victim also ran away leaving behind their cars as the gates were locked. A hunt is on for the culprits.

 “The lawyer of the victim had reached the bank and had questioned the fake ED officers, and sought to see their ID cards. The imposters grew suspicious of being caught and ran away before they could be apprehended,” the ED said in a statement. An FIR has been registered by the Delhi Police and two vehicles belonging to the accused have also been seized from the victim’s house. Later, in his statement to the police, the victim said that seven people had come to his house on Oct 21 night in two cars claiming to be ED officers. Four of them were masked while three interacted with him unmasked. “They questioned the victim as to why he was withdrawing huge cash regularly from his bank account. They also carried with them some cheques of his old bank account and threatened arrest unless he agreed to pay them Rs 5 crore,” the ED has said.  So confident was the fake ED team, that when the businessman told the ‘raiding party’ that the money could be taken out only from the bank the next morning, the imposters decided to stay at his house the entire night. The next day, he was taken to the Kotak Mahindra Bank at Hauz Khas to withdraw the money