The Pune police crime branch have arrested an RTO agent who was absconding since 2017 in connection with a case related to cheating scores of citizens to the tune of lakhs of rupees.
The accused was identified as Vishal Sonawne (41), a resident of Jambhulwadi on Katraj road who had allegedly promised to complete the RTO work related to vehicle passing and registration work for his victims and duped them on the pretext of completing their work.
Sonawane took vehicle registration from a company and for that an advance of ₹4.50 lakh was taken.
He did not complete the said work and an FIR under IPC 420 (cheating ) was lodged against him at Mundhwa Police Station.
The investigation was handed over to Crime Branch Unit I which during a detailed investigation found that the accused had cheated a number of persons including big companies and took lakhs of rupees from them.
The crime branch investigation led the sleuths to Bund Garden police station where they found another FIR lodged against him.
{{/usCountry}}The crime branch investigation led the sleuths to Bund Garden police station where they found another FIR lodged against him.
{{/usCountry}}The modus operandi of the accused was to set up office in plush areas and released advertisement on just dial as RTO agent to trap new victims.
The sleuths received an information that accused was visiting powerhouse area in Rasta peth.
Based on the information of police constable Yogesh Jatap, a team of crime branch officials under the guidance of their in-charge police inspector Bharat Jadhav laid a trap and arrested the accused.
Jadhav said, “During custodial interrogation, he revealed the crimes he had committed and also told us about involvement in defrauding case, an FIR of which was lodged at Kondhwa police station. We are investigation as more leads are emerging in the case.”
Besides Kondhwa, Mundhwa and Bundgarden , cases have been lodged against him at Bharati Vidyapeeth and Khadki police stations respectively.