2 small-time TV actors, 6 others arrested in fake I-T raid of ₹18 lakh

Mumbai: Sion police have arrested eight accused who had posed as Income Tax (I-T) department officials and informers to defraud a businessman residing in the same neighbourhood, of ₹18 lakh in cash, on November 26

Mumbai: Sion police have arrested eight accused who had posed as Income Tax (I-T) department officials and informers to defraud a businessman residing in the same neighbourhood, of ₹18 lakh in cash, on November 26.

All eight were arrested on Monday night. (Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times)

Two of the accused operated independently in the beginning but all the members’ paths converged in a single crime at the end.

Monday’s arrests revealed that two of the eight -- Mankhurd residents Amardeep Sonawane, 29, and Bhaurao Ingale, 52 -- are small-time actors who have performed in television shows. They also work in the real estate sector. The accused were allegedly inspired by scripts of similar frauds they had read while on the job. Their modus operandi was a straight lift. They were accompanied by two others.

The accused claimed they had acted on a tip-off that more than ₹10 crore was stashed in the house of the complainant, motivating them to carry out the fake raid.

Sion police had registered the case of the raid at the house of Shreelata Ramkumar Patwa, 29, a resident of TV Chidambaram Road, Sion East. The family runs a business of imitation jewellery and rakhi.

“Four of the eight accused entered the Patwa home on November 26, at around 11 am. They presented their make-believe visiting cards, seized the phones of family members, as is norm, and searched the house. The accused also showed them fake documents purportedly authorising the search and seized ₹18 lakh from the house. They had even attempted a panchanama, which is carried out by government agencies in such exercises,” deputy commissioner of police, (Zone IV), Prashant Kadam said. “The accused then left, telling the family that they will soon receive a notice to appear before the agency to explain their source of income. They dumped the cash in a chauffeur-driven Toyota Innova and left.”

The family smelt a stink when they did not hear from the I-T department in the next two to three days. They turned to their chartered accountant and lodged a case of cheating.

Police scanned the CCTV footage, located the vehicle number and tracked it down to Maharashtra Nagar, in Mankhurd. Later, it surfaced that the vehicle’s number had been changed in the middle of the drive to the suburb. After locating the original number, they mapped it to the vehicle’s owner, Sangeeta Mangale, wife of one of the accused, Rajaram Mangale, 47. “Once we tracked down Mangale, we got the others as well,” said a police official. The police said Mangale runs a cake shop and is also associated with a political party.

Three of the other five accused were identified as Santosh Patel, 37, also a Mankhurd resident like the two small-time actors and Mangale, and Sushant Lohar, 33, a driver who coordinated the theft along with Sharad Ekavade, 33, a fellow accomplice, said an officer.

“Accused Abhay Kasale, 48, a resident of Thane, and Ramkumar Gujjar, 38, a resident of Dharavi, were the informers,” said another police officer. Gujjar was the complainant’s brother’s friend, who informed the other accused about the ₹10 crore at the Patwa residence, hoping for a 20 per cent share of the black money seized as commission.

“The informants genuinely thought that Lohar and his accomplices were I-T officers and shared information about the black money,” said the police officer.

Both Ekavade and Gujjar were in need of money to pay off old debts and hoped that the reward from the I-T department would help them clear the dues, said the police officer.

All eight were arrested on Monday night. “We registered a case for 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 170 (personating a public servant), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 120 B of IPC for conspiracy against unknown accused,” said Kadam.

“They were produced in court on Tuesday, following which they have been sent to police custody till December 11. We are still questioning them if they have committed similar crimes, and are yet to recover the ₹18 lakh, which they claimed to have split up among themselves,” said the police officer.