Pune Crime Files: How cops busted an Arabic-speaking gang that conned Yemeni medical tourists in city
Investigators said the accused posed as police personnel and approached the Yemen nationals in Pune in the guise of checking their documents before fleeing with their money.
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The conmen, who spoke fluent Arabic, had allegedly tricked the unsuspecting medical tourists under the guise of conducting routine checks. (Express photo)Between April 2023 and February 2024, four distinct cases of cheating and impersonation were reported in Pune, in which Yemeni citizens visiting the city for medical treatment were conned by fraudsters posing as police officers. The conmen, who spoke fluent Arabic, had allegedly tricked the unsuspecting medical tourists under the guise of conducting routine checks.
The probe, which involved the examination of footage from over 600 CCTV cameras, eventually took the police to a beach resort in Daman where they nabbed the culprits.
A large number of Yemen nationals and citizens from other West Asian countries who arrive in Pune for medical treatment stay in the Kondhwa area along with their families. Depending on the duration of the treatment, these families may extend their stay for longer periods.
The last incident had taken place at Ashirwad Chowk in Kondhwa on February 8 that year, when a 52-year-old Yemeni national was targeted. When the man was passing Ashirwad Chowk around 4.30 pm, a car approached him from behind. A person got down from the car, identified himself as a police officer and started talking to him in Arabic.
On the pretext of checking his travel documents and the things he was carrying, the suspect took the victim’s identity cards and documents along with the Indian and foreign currency he was carrying and began to “check” them. All of a sudden, he got into the car and fled from the scene before the victim could react. The suspect had reportedly decamped with Saudi riyal, US dollars and Indian rupees together worth around Rs 4.79 lakh.
In September 2023, a 47-year-old Yemeni national was cheated of USD 4,000 (approximately Rs 3.4 lakh) in an identical manner near Kausarbaug Masjid in Kondhwa Khurd. Two men flashed identity cards before the victim and said they were police officers. When the victim told them that he did not speak fluent Hindi or English, the men started conversing with him in Arabic. They said they wanted to inspect the money he was carrying and took the cash from him. Moments later, the duo fled with the money. One more similar case was reported that month and another in April 2023.
By February 2024, a team from Kondhwa police station took up the probe with Senior Inspector Santosh Sonavane, Inspector Mansingh Patil and Assistant Inspector Lekhaji Shinde investigating various leads.
Meanwhile, constables Suhas More, Rahul Thorat and Jaydev Bhosale zeroed in on a car allegedly used for the February 8 incident. The team followed the car’s trail by carefully examining footage from over 600 CCTV cameras along the route from Khadimachine Chowk, Katraj Navale bridge, Warje Dukkar Khind, Baner and Hinjewadi. The suspect then changed the car’s registration number plate.
The car with the new number plate was traced along Urse Toll Plaza, Khalapur Toll Plaza, Navi Mumbai, Turbhe, Thane, Palghar, Dahanu and Gholvad before it finally reached Daman. Probe into technical leads and locally gathered intelligence suggested that the suspects were hiding at a beach resort in Daman.
Before long, the police arrested four suspects identified as Sikandar Ali Khan, 46, Kareem Feroz Khan, 29, Irfan Hussain Hashmi, 44, and Mehboob Abdul Khan, 59, all residents of Jangpura in South Delhi. The foreign currency was also recovered from them.
The police then began to investigate their role in the other similar cases reported in Pune. “Our probe revealed that the suspects spoke Arabic fluently and specifically targeted the unsuspecting Yemen nationals who were in Pune for the medical treatment of their family members. For this investigation, the Pune police received appreciation from the Yemeni embassy in India,” said an officer who was part of the probe.
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