Fraud posing as minister’s PA dupes Gujarat man of ₹2.38 lakh, booked

The complainant, Mayur Vanel, 37, is associated with the Adani Port in Kutch, Gujarat. According to the complaint, Vanel developed an application to reduce the paperwork of the police after the Gujarat police fined him several times for various traffic offences

Mumbai: A fraud posed as the personal assistant to cooperation minister Dilip Walse-Patil and duped a 37-year-old electrical engineer from Surat, Gujarat, of ₹2.38 lakh, police officials said on Tuesday. The Marine Drive police station registered an FIR against two persons in the matter.

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The accused have been identified as Prashant Navghare and Nitesh Savadekar.

The complainant, Mayur Vanel, 37, is associated with the Adani Port in Kutch, Gujarat. According to the complaint, Vanel developed an application to reduce the paperwork of the police after the Gujarat police fined him several times for various traffic offences.

“He wanted to sell the application to the Maharashtra police and got the contact of Navghare. In January 2022, they met near the Akashwani Canteen when Navghare introduced himself as the PA of Walse-Patil, who was then the home minister of the state,” a senior police officer said.

“Navghare showed a photo of himself with the minister to gain the complainant’s confidence. Then, to get the contract, he asked Vanel to submit a proposal which will be approved by the cyber security department officer Savadekar,” the officer added.

The accused told Vanel that the entire procedure would cost ₹6 lakh, of which Savadekar would take ₹1 lakh to give him the approval, the officer said, adding, “Navghare also told him to register his company on BMC’s website, for which an agreement will be made in Mantralaya.”

“Then, on various pretexts, Navghare took ₹2.38 lakh from the complainant and gave him a fake work order which the complainant doubted as it was not on any letterhead but only had stamps. When the complainant started demanding his money back, they initially avoided him, however, later they gave him a cheque of ₹75,000. Eventually, the check bounced,” said the police officer.

Navghare and Savadekar have been booked under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 34 (common intention), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.