A group of men allegedly knocked on the door of a Bhowanipore businessman’s house posing as CBI officers on Monday morning and took away Rs 30 lakh and jewellery after conducting what they said was a “search”.
Police said the robbery was reported from 1/6 Rupchand Mukherjee Lane, a four-storeyed building not far from Bhowanipore police station and close to Bijoli cinema.
The alleged crime was reported to the police several hours after it is said to have been committed, an officer of the police station said.
“The robbery was reported by businessman Suresh Wadhwa, 60, on Monday afternoon. The crime was committed around 8.30am,” the officer said.
“According to the Wadhwa family, the robbers took away around Rs 30 lakh and jewellery from the house. No force was used. The victims did not raise any alarm,” said an officer at Lalbazar.
The Telegraph could not contact the Wadhwa family to verify the police’s version.
A senior police officer involved in the probe said preliminary investigations revealed that six or seven men had turned up in three vehicles, with “CBI” written on them, for the alleged robbery.
A resident of the neighbourhood said the building, which originally belonged to a doctor, was sold to the Wadhwas a few years ago. The family lives on the second and third floors, while the ground and first floors are vacant.
“The building has an elderly caretaker who is ‘exceptionally strict’ in not allowing strangers into the building. The building is always locked from the inside. We are surprised how such a thing could happen in a building like this,” said a homemaker who lives in the locality.
Wadhwa and a few women members of the family were home when the gang struck.
The neighbourhood, close to the busy Hazra crossing, is otherwise an “uneventful and peaceful” pocket.
“I cannot recall the last time such a daring daylight robbery happened here. This is a peaceful neighbourhood and we did not hear anything unusual today, too (while the house was being robbed),” said a resident of a neighbouring block.
The police said that till Monday evening they could not find any CCTV camera in the lane. They were analysing footage obtained from the nearest cameras on the main road.
An officer said they were talking to the family members who were in the house during the alleged robbery.
“We are trying to gather more details about the people who came in the garb of CBI officers. It is important to know what they were wearing, which language they were speaking and if there was any significant exchange of words between them,” said the officer.
Sources said the men who came went directly to the room where the family kept official documents. There was no use of force, the family has reportedly told the cops.