Man arrested for posing as Ajit Pawar’s OSD and cheating people

Police arrested Pravin Sathe for posing as Ajit Pawar's OSD, using forged documents to cheat people. He was remanded in custody for investigation.

MUMBAI: The Malabar Hill police on Sunday arrested a 42-year-old man who had been posing as Ajit Pawar’s OSD (Officer on Special Duty) and used a fake letterhead with the forged signature of the deputy chief minister to cheat people.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at a rally. The Malabar Hill police on Sunday arrested a 42-year-old man who had been posing as Pawar’s OSD. (ANI Photo) (Ajit Pawar-X)

The arrested accused, Pravin Prakash Sathe, is a native of Satara and a resident of Ulwe in Navi Mumbai. The police nabbed him from Panvel where he was staying and charged him under Sections 318(4) (cheating) , 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust ), 336(3) (making false documents or electronic records with intent to cause damage), 340(2) (forged document or electronic record) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. He was produced in court and remanded to police custody till Tuesday.

The incident came to light last month when Sathe told a certain Vijay Bhoir that he was Ajit’s OSD and sent a screenshot of the forged letterhead of the deputy CM along with his forged signature where it was mentioned that he had been appointed as an OSD. The complainant in the case was Atul Shitole, 53, a resident of Pune, who told the police that Sathe had also claimed that he worked from the deputy CM’s official bungalow, Devgiri, at Malabar Hill.

During the investigation, it was found that Sathe had told many people that he was working as a government officer and had taken money from them under the pretext of helping them out with government-related work. When he was taken into custody, a screenshot of the forged letterhead was found in his mobile phone photo gallery. The police have seized the phone for further investigation. “We will extract the data to ascertain that he has duped many people,” said a police officer.

A senior officer said that they were also investigating at which other places Sathe had misused the forged letterhead and how many people he had cheated. “We have also been investigating how the accused prepared the documents using forged signatures and how many people have suffered financial losses on account of him,” said the officer. “It also appears that he could not have done all this alone—there must be accomplices with him.”