A 26-year-old scrap dealer was cheated of ₹3 lakh in a fake car sale near Manik Chowk, Chakan, on April 5.
The complainant, Huzaif Firoz Bagwan from Baramati, approached Ganesh Dnyandev Dhakare (21) and Sameer Dinkar Mhalle (26) to purchase a car owned by his friend Abaz Shaikh.
According to the complaint, Dhakare and Mhalle came to Pune to buy the car. After finalising a deal for ₹3.5 lakh, they paid Bagwan ₹3 lakh upfront, promising to settle the balance later. Bagwan later found that only a few notes at the start and end of the cash bundle were genuine; the rest were counterfeit.
“When I tried contacting Dhakare and Mhalle, their phones were switched off, and they had fled with the vehicle,” Bagwan said.
Bagwan immediately approached Chakan North police, who, with the help of CCTV footage and technical analysis, identified and arrested the accused duo within hours.
A case has been registered under Sections 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 for cheating and criminal conspiracy.