E-Paper
Hello, Sharad Pawar speaking... 3 booked for ‘fake’ phone call
A case has been registered at Chakan police station against three people for making a phone call, with one of the three pretending to be Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party supremo, to extort money from a contractor in Khed
A case has been registered at Chakan police station against three people for making a phone call, with one of the three pretending to be Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party supremo, to extort money from a contractor in Khed.
The three were identified as Dheeraj Pathare, Gurav, and Kiran Kakade, according to Krishna Prakash, commissioner, Pimpri-Chinchwad police.
A complaint in the matter was lodged by Prataprao Vaman Khandebarad (54), a resident of Kadachiwadi, Khed.
“Khandebarad had taken a loan from Pathare with 13 acres as collateral. Pathare had charged a high interest rate of 10% per month. After some time, as Khandebarad could not pay back the money, Pathare took ownership of the 13 acres, but the demand for the money did not stop,” said commissioner Prakash.
When Pathare kept asking for money Khandebarad registered a case under the Maharashtra Moneylending (Regulation) Act, 2014.
In January, Pathare started making life-threats to the complainant, his wife, and his brother-in-law on their personal mobile numbers, according to the complainant.
On April 30, he went to their home and threatened to kill them if they did not give ₹5 crore in interest.
“Then he came up with an idea and collaborated with two others to pretend to be Sharad Pawar. Gurav spoke as Sharad Pawar and Kakade pretended to be his assistant. They used an online platform that enabled them to show the caller ID as the residential number of Sharad Pawar,” said commissioner Prakash.
A case was registered under Sections 387, 504, 506, 507, and 34 of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of Information Technology Act was registered at Chakan police station. Senior police inspector Lalsingh Rajput is investigating the case.
