Dressed as policemen, gangs are targeting commuters on dark roads in Noida, Ghaziabad

NOIDA: Dressed in police uniform, vehicle thieves have been targeting commuters on dark stretches in both Noida and Ghaziabad.
At least two such cases have been reported in the recent past where the accused claimed to be either Task Force officers or policemen waiting for checking papers.
In the first incident, a Ghaziabad scrap dealer was robbed of his Toyota Fortuner by two persons wearing STF uniform in Sahibabad area on July 9. Anwar Malik, who was returning home to Rajendra Nagar from Haridwar, had reached near the Karan Gate police outpost around 10.30pm when the two men signalled him to stop.
“One of them knocked on my window with a pistol in hand. It was not just a country-made pistol. He claimed he was from the STF and needed to check my vehicle in connection with the Vikas Dubey case. Although I stopped, I sensed something was wrong since Dubey had already been arrested in Ujjain the same day. I still came out of the car. One person tried to hit me in the head but I covered it with my hand. Another kicked me from behind and beat me up. Then, they fled with my car,” he alleged.
Anwar had left his phone in the SUV. When a friend called on his number, the accused allegedly told him they were from the Sahibabad police station and disconnected the call, he alleged.
An FIR for loot has been lodged at Sahibabad police station. “We have handed over the recording of the conversation to police,” he said.
In another such incident, a man wearing police uniform allegedly tried to stop a Noida resident near the Sector 57 intersection on Tuesday night.
Sarfaraz Malik said he was returning from Escort hospital around 12.30am on Tuesday when he was stopped. “I was with my brother-in-law. As soon as we reached the Sector 57 intersection, we saw a man in police uniform and another in civil dress signalling us to stop. We had heard of the incident in Sahibabad and decided to speed away. I can identify the person in police uniform,” he told TOI.
Even in the Gaurav Chandel murder case in January this year, the private firm executive was believed to have been stopped by a few men dressed in police uniform.
Noida police ruled out any such claim of gangs dressing up as cops and robbing commuters in the recent past. DCP Sankalp Sharma said that in the past six months, no such incident has been reported. “However, if details of such an incident are established, we will verify and act on the information,” he said.