New Delhi: A contractor’s desperate attempt to cover his tracks took an absurd turn. But it left police investigators both amused and baffled.When 42-year-old contractor Mantu Mandal got his hands on an almirah during his job as a contractor at a construction site in Lajpat Nagar a month ago, he sold it to the scrap dealer as he normally did such things. However, when the scrap dealer discovered some valuables in the almirah, he returned it to Mandal. The locker of the old almirah contained gold articles weighing 70 grams and silver articles weighing 20 grams. However, the original owner of the valuables, having been informed by the scrap dealer, also appeared and demanded their return.Cornered, Mandal, along with his friend Raju alias Yusuf, 38, concocted a wild tale of abduction, claiming he was kidnapped by men posing as cops who stole the valuables. The two friends also hired two motorcyclists, Raj Kumar, 39, and Sarfaraz, 43, to help them in the execution of their plan.Aishwarya Sharma, additional DCP (South-East), said, “In the early hours of June 27, Mandal called the cops alleging that two bikers had entered his house pretending to be cops, looted him of gold, abducted him and then left him a kilometre away before fleeing.”As the police registered a FIR and further investigated the case, they uncovered that the case had more to it than what met the eye. They discovered that the whole setup to be a farce with Mandal’s desperation to keep the gold leading to a series of comical missteps. Police took over and after watching the CCTV footage, nabbed Raju, Kumar and Sarfaraz. The led the cops back to Mandal, who was arrested.Police said the contractor had handed over the gold and silver to the two bikers. “Kumar and Sarfaraz had taken photos of the loot as evidence to make the abduction seem legitimate,” Sharma revealed. Moreover, police noted that Mandal hadn’t made a single call that entire night despite the ‘stressful’ situation he had been in.The cops recovered the 70 grams of gold, 20 grams of silver, the bike that was used in the crime as also the almirah at the centre of it all from the men and arrested all the four men. Further probe is under way.
