A group of nearly half a dozen ‘fake cops’—claiming to be associated with the anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of Palghar police—intercepted a car carrying Rs 5.15 crore and looted it near Virar along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway. The complainant Shrawan Thakor, 24, who was travelling in the car that belonged to a Mumbai-based courier company, was also kidnapped while the group took away the vehicle and his cell phones. The police said the car driver was hand in glove with the robbers.

After Thakor was released somewhere along the highway, he approached the Mandvi police station where an FIR was registered under Sections 420 (cheating) and 170 (impersonating a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code. Considering the sensitivity of the case, senior officers transferred it to the crime branch for further investigation.