Chandigarh police claims kingpin of MP’s Irani gang arrested

In the recent robberies in Chandigarh, some unknown people posed themselves as police officials, indicating a pattern, SSP Kanwardeep Kaur said, while addressing the media. She added that keeping in view of the gravity of this unique modus operandi, a special team under the supervision of Charanjit Singh Virk, SDPO South West and SHO/PS-36 was constituted.

“It was a two-month long operation. Our team analysed the CCTV footage and identified the accused as members of ‘Irani Gang’,” Kanwardeep further said, adding that the gang was finally nabbed on June 24 after receiving information about their movement near Lake at Sector 42 in Chandigarh.

“Our team successfully apprehended the kingpin of Irani Gang, and after interrogating, the accused confessed his crime,” Kanwardeep added.

Major items that were recovered include a Pulsar bike with fake number plate, a fake CBI ID card, and one gun along with four live cartridges.

History of ‘Irani Gang’

The police officials said that about 400 years ago, during the rule of Aurangzeb, one family came to India from Iran, and was known as Irani. There are about 350 families of that family in India. Around 400-500 young persons of these families are active in the gang that operates across India. They are divided in teams, and each group has four to five members, the officials said. They said all the members of the gang have good muscular body and are tall, making them appear like police officers.

The modus operandi

The police said during interrogation, the accused disclosed that gang used to operate from Agra. Two members impersonating as cops would target senior citizens by asking them to take off their jewellery on the pretext of part of police checking. They would then pack the jewellery in a paper packet and instead of returning the real jewellery, they would hand over fake jewellery in a similar packet to the victim. During the same time, another gang member will come pretending to be a passerby and will hand over his belongings to the impersonator so as to gain confidence of the victim. Another gang member who will be stationed some distance away will keep a watch and other gang member would wait with a car or bike to flee away with the booty, the police said. They usually leave the state where they commit the crime.

During interrogation, the police said, it has also come to notice that the accused used to stay at high-profile hotels.

Kaur further said the remaining gang members have also been identified and are likely to be arrested soon.