Indian police have arrested six men who were allegedly posing as law enforcement officials and extorting money under the guise of an “International Police and Crime Investigation Bureau.” The bureau was being run from a rented office in Noida, a satellite city of New Delhi, that was decorated with “police-like colours and logos,” according to a police statement issued late on Sunday.
Police stated that the accused had created forged documents and certificates and were running a website to solicit “donations” from their victims. They also falsely claimed to have “affiliations with Interpol” and other international crime agencies. “The perpetrators presented themselves as public servants,” the police said. The authorities recovered several mobile phones, chequebooks, stamp seals, and identity cards from the office.
These arrests follow a similar case just weeks earlier, in which a man was apprehended for allegedly running a fake embassy from a rented house near New Delhi. The man, identified as Harsh Vardhan Jain, 47, was accused of duping job seekers by promising them employment abroad. He operated an “illegal West Arctic embassy” in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and claimed to be an ambassador for fictional nations such as “West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, Lodonia.” He allegedly used vehicles with fake diplomatic license plates and shared doctored photos of himself with Indian political leaders to lend credibility to his claims. He is also facing charges of money laundering.
