Sangli man forges Fadnavis’s signature, fakes his secretary’s email ID to send transfer orders to MSEDCL engineers

A man in Maharashtra, India was arrested for allegedly faking emails from the private secretary to the deputy chief minister and sending transfer orders to six engineers. The accused had forged the signature of the deputy chief minister and demanded money from the engineers for their transfers and postings.

A 40-year-old man who allegedly faked the e-mail ID of the private secretary to deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and sent transfer orders to six engineers with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) was arrested in Sangli district on Wednesday.

Sangli man forges Fadnavis’s signature, fakes his secretary’s email ID to send transfer orders to MSEDCL engineers

The signature of Fadnavis, who also holds the energy portfolio, on the letter heads was also forged, an official from Maharashtra cyber department said.

The accused, identified as Mohammad Ilyas Yakub Momin, has completed his BE in electronics and is currently working as a private contractor in his hometown at Sangli’s Miraj. He had used the Wi-FI at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to send the fake letters from his mobile phone and had demanded money from the MSEDCL employees for their transfers and postings, the official said.

According to the cyber police, the six engineers received e-mails from vidyadharmahale.min@gmail.com that they had been transferred to Mumbai, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon and Nashik. Suspecting foul play, they contacted the home department as well as Vidhyadhar Mahale, private secretary to Fadnavis, and learnt that no such orders had been issued by them.

“When the orders and the email were verified, they were found to be fake. Even the signature on the letter heads was forged,” cyber department’s superintendent Sanjay Shintre said.

Speaking to HT, Mahale said the incident came to light after a BJP worker told Fadnavis that his request for transfer was not accepted but he learnt that some others had got transfer orders.

“When the letters were checked, we realised that they were never sent by us. I brought this issue to the notice of the deputy CM, and he asked me to file a complaint. On September 26, I wrote to inspector general of police Yashasvi Yadav from the cyber department,” he said.

A case was registered on October 2. A cyber expert traced Momin through the internet protocol address on his mobile phone which was used to send the bogus emails from Mumbai, Yadav said. “He was arrested in his hometown on Wednesday.”

A court in Mumbai sent Momin to police custody for 10 days.

Mahale said the fake letters mentioned Fadnavis as energy minister whereas Fadnavis always used letterhead of deputy CM. “The orders were sent to MSEDCL using an email ID created by the accused in my name. He also forged the signature of Fadnavis. Senior officials should have verified the authenticity of the orders. But they didn’t.”

The six engineers who got fake emails for their transfers and new postings include Durgesh Anil Jagtap, an assistant engineer in Kalyan division who was shown transferred to Ratnagiri, and Ganesh Murlidhar Asmar, a deputy executive engineer who was shown transferred from Pune to Bhandup division. Four assistant engineers - Manish Dhote, Yashwant Gaikwad, Daya Rathod and Yogesh Aher - were shown transferred from Amravati to Jalgaon, Pune to Ratnagiri, Pune to Nashik, and Nashik to Aurangabad respectively, cyber officials said.