This morning, 11 men and a woman, posing as CBI officers, spent more than an hour in the businessman's house before decamping with Rs 25,000 and jewellery worth Rs 1.25 lakh.

This is the second such incident in the area. The police are still clueless about the identity of the four men, posing as Delhi policemen, who had robbed Rs 60 lakh from a bullion agent's house on January 7.

Around 11 am today, Rastogi, 52, left for work as usual. Rastogi is a prominent dealer in air-conditioning equipment with outlets in Pitampura and Daryaganj. Minutes later, two Maruti cars, one red and the other maroon, a scooter and and an autorickshaw stopped near the gate to his house in Pitampura's plush colony.

Rastogi'sdaughter Chetna says the group, most of its members clad in jeans and T-shirts, rang the doorbell and when she responded, a couple of them flashed identity cards claiming they were from the ``special staff of the CBI''. The robbers then ordered Chetna to summon all the occupants of the house to the living room. ``When I hesitated, some of them went searching the other rooms. They forced my brother, mother and the maid-servant to join me in the living room. Then they went to our tenant's house upstairs and brought their daughter and the maid-servant to the room.

I am sure they were armed, though they did not brandish any weapons.'' Chetna says she and her brother had doubts about the group's credentials after they asked her mother to give an inventory of goods in the house.

``They were specially interested in the cash. My suspicions were confirmed when I went towards the telephone and tried to call my father. They had cut the wires.'' By then, it was too late. Some of the men pinned her down; ditto withher brother Tarun. Then they took her mother inside, to the room where the almirahs are kept, and forced her to hand over the keys. Chetna says she could raise an alarm only around 12.20 pm, when the robbers ran outside into their cars and drove away. Till late this evening, the police had no clue about the identity of the robbers, though Chetna had managed to note down a part of the cars' registration numbers.

They removed 25 tolas of gold jewellery and Rs 25,000 from the lockers inside, and stashed the goods inside a bag.

Two constables, keeping vigil at a school -- where CBSE examinations are being conducted -- opposite the Rastogis' house, heard her and gave chase. But their scooter broke down and the robbers sped away.

S P Rastogi, who returned home after a relative told him about the robbery, says, ``The robbers must have been watching my movements for some days. They seemed to know every detail about my business and my family. There is no question of personal enmity.''

``The woman, who wasaround 25, seemed to be the boss. She claimed the CBI had some information about my father's business deals and the team wanted to search our house,'' says Chetna, who is married and was visiting her parents.