Man booked for duping several people under pretext of Army recruitment

A man was booked for posing as an Indian Army officer, marrying a woman, and duping her family, and at least 10 others, with false promises of recruitment of her brother and other young men as jawan

A man was booked for posing as an Indian Army officer, marrying a woman, and duping her family, and at least 10 others, with false promises of recruitment of her brother and other young men as jawan.

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The complainant in the matter is a 21-year-old class 12 graduate who works in the private sector, according to the police. The accused, whose name has been withheld pending his arrest, has also been booked by Ahmednagar police in 2019 for duping a man under false pretext of placing his son in the armed force.

The two had met in January 2020 outside a hospital where the woman takes her father for treatment of sugar and blood pressure, according to her complaint.

“He dropped his ID card and the girl picked it up and gave it to him. He thanked her and they exchanged numbers. They first spoke on a messaging app after which they started talking on the phone. He soon proposed marriage and on the day of the wedding, when she reached Aurangabad, he was alone. He claimed that his parents had Covid19 and got married in haste and clicked a photograph. They lived together for 10-12 days and then he brought her to Pune and left saying he had been awarded Shaurya pathak,” said assistant police inspector Rajesh Usgaonkar of Bibwewadi police station who is investigating the case.

The man had presented with multiple doctored documents showing that he went to the National Defence Academy, had worked in the ammunition factory in Khadki, and that he was a major general by rank, according to the police.

“The documents appear fake at the first glance. The spelling of ammunition and Khadakwasla are wrong in these documents,” said API Usgaonkar.

The man then offered to employ the girl’s brother get inducted into the Indian Army and asked her father to pay ₹2 lakh for it. The man had made scores of other people pay similar amounts under guise of getting their children recruitment in the armed force.

“The girl started getting suspicious after people whom he owed money started approaching her, asking for their money back. So far we have 10 witnesses at least but there are definitely more,” said API Usgaonkar.

A case under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 419 (personation), 170 (personating a public servant), 171 (wearing garb or carrying token, used by public servant, with fraudulent intent), and 140 (wearing garb or carrying token used by soldier, sailor or airman without being one) of Indian Penal Code was registered at Bibwewadi police station.