At around 1:30 a.m. today, nearly 10 armed men clad in uniforms reportedly looted two houses in Pipli Wala town in Manimajra. A senior police official said that eight to 10 men confronted Lalji Prasad, a resident of the town, who was sleeping outside his house. "They told him that they were policemen and wanted to search his house," the official added. He said the men entered the house, searched it and after locking up the incumbents, left with gold ornaments. The official added that the "gang" next approached the nearby house of Saraj-ud-din, a small-time baker. "He was also sleeping outside.

They told him a similar story and picked up Rs 7,500. They told Saraj-ud-din that their officer wanted to see him. They made him walk up to the nearby railway line, where they beat him up and warned him against raising an alarm," the official said. Police said the group moved towards Indira Colony, where a boy saw them and raised an alarm, thinking them to be thieves. The official claimed that the men were chased by two policemen but they managed to escape to Saketri in the cover of darkness.

The police have registered a case under Section 458 of the IPC for "house-breaking by night after preparation for hurt, assault and wrongful restraint".