E-Paper
Man booked for lockdown digital e-pass fraud in Pune
Accused charged people Rs 1,000 per pass and submitted misleading applications in their names, said police.
A man was booked by Pune police crime branch after multiple applications were received by the team of officials handling the digital pass service in Pune with the same credentials.
The booked man was identified as Ritesh Lashkare, a resident of Panvel in Navi Mumbai area.
The team of 8 officials who receive and respond to requests for a digital pass is headed by Bachchan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, crime, Pune. The team reported that within a span of a few days, 11 applications with the same mobile number were made. The aadhaar card and medical certificate on the applications were also found to be the same.
The applications were in the name of Mangesh Kalaskar, Prashant Mayekar, Sagar Devrukhkar, Tejas Anand Chevulkar, Naresh Sable, Raju Gujar, Swapnil Dhanwade, Anant Dichalkar, Yogesh Bhosale, Sagar Pawar, and Siddhesh Suvre, according to a statement issued by Pune police. All the applications were rejected. They were found to be residents of Thane and Mumbai areas which have a high number of Covid19 cases. All their applications for travel to places including Satara, Kokan, Sangli was rejected by the local police. Therefore, new applications in their names were made in Pune, suspected by Lashkare.
“This man is a travel agent. He charged people Rs 1,000 per pass and submitted misleading applications in their name. We are on a lookout for him,” said Police inspector Mahendra Jagtap of Unit 2 crime branch.
A case under Sections 420 (cheating), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment), 177 (furnishing false information) of Indian Penal Code along with Section 66(d) of Information Technology Act was registered at Bundgarden police station.
