Two, including a fake NIA officer arrested for cheating central govt employee of ₹35L

Two persons were arrested in Mumbai for duping a central government employee of ₹35.25 lakh by promising a desirable posting in a public-sector bank. One of the accused posed as an IPS officer.

Mumbai: Two persons were arrested on Sunday for allegedly duping a central government employee of ₹35.25 lakh by ensuring a desirable posting for him in a public-sector bank. According to the Mumbai Crime Branch officials, one of the accused posed as an IPS officer.

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The arrested persons are identified as Ganesh Shivaji Chavan, 33, a resident of Vashi, Navi Mumbai and Manoj Kupinder Pawar, 43, from the Indiranagar area, Vashi Naka, Chembur.

Both the accused work as liaisons and boast of having contacts with higher echelons at central and state government. They claimed they could get any work done from them, such as transfers of employees etc.

During the lockdown period, the victim, Rajesh Chaturvedi, a nationalised bank employee, told his close friend, Vinay Jadhav, the complainant in the case, that he wanted to be selected as the board of director in one of the nationalised banks.

Vinay, who was friends with one of the accused Manoj Pawar for years, shared with him that Rajesh aspires to become the board of directors of a nationalised bank. Taking advantage of the situation, Pawar introduced Vinay to Ganesh Chavan, who claimed to have recently been selected as an IPS officer and working with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as a provisional officer. In order to appear genuine and to impress people, Ganesh Chavan even kept his display picture posing as an NIA officer on WhatsApp, said police inspector Shashikant Pawar of the property cell of the crime branch. Both Manoj Pawar and Ganesh Chavan claimed they would use their influence in the central government to ensure that Rajesh Chaturvedi gets the desired promotion and transfer to the top post. However, they demanded ₹1 crore. After negotiation, they settled for an amount of ₹35.25 lakh to get the work started. Chaturvedi paid the amount in three to four instalments between 2022 and 2023 and the rest of the amount he said he would pay once he received a confirmation letter, added the officer.

The accused later gave a forged appointment letter to Chaturvedi, claiming to be issued in the name of minister of state (finance) Anurag Thakur mentioning that Chaturvedi was appointed as one of the directors of the board in a nationalised bank.

The accused even once took Chaturvedi to the director general officer in his own car keeping a police nameplate on the front and asked the victim to wait outside and he visited the DG office to gain the trust, added the officer.

Weeks later, Chaturvedi learnt that another person was appointed as the director of the bank and found out that he was duped. He contacted the accused and demanded his money back. They threatened him and refused to pay the money back.

Jadhav wrote a written complaint to the crime branch and the property cell investigated the matter and nabbed the accused. Once it was confirmed an FIR was registered in the Chembur police station on Sunday morning and the accused were arrested and produced in the court and remanded in police custody till November 30, said Pawar. We have been investigating the matter and also trying to find out if the accused had duped others with similar modus operandi in the past. Their bank accounts are being scrutinised, added the officer.