New Delhi: Six persons have been arrested for allegedly using the phone number of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to contact a builder in Pune and later trying to extort Rs 20 lakh, police said on Friday.
According to an official, the crime branch on Thursday laid a trap and nabbed the accused when they were taking Rs 2 lakh from the builder. It was reported that one of the accused used Pawar’s number on a “fake call” application to contact the complainant and pretended to be a staff member of the deputy chief minister.
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The accused have been identified as Navnath Chormale, Saurabh Kakade, Sunil Waghmare, Kiran Kakade, Chaitanya Waghmare and Akash Nikalje, news agency PTI reported.
An official said, “The developer had bought a parcel of land from Chormale’s grandfather in 1997 following due process. Chormale recently filed a suit seeking compensation from the developer. He told Kakade about the same, who then claimed to know Pawar’s personal assistant and offered to help him and promised that he would ask him to call the developer.
He said that Kakade called the builder using Pawar’s phone number through a fake call app.
“The developer’s assistant received the call assuming that it was Pawar who was making the call. Kakade introduces himself as Pawar’s PA and instructs him to ‘settle’ the case with Chormale.
The builder then called Pawar’s PA directly for confirmation. He said he was told that the call was not made from the Deputy Chief Minister’s phone. The builder then approached Chormale who demanded Rs 20 lakh from him to settle the matter.
“The accused was caught red handed while accepting Rs 2 lakh. During investigation Kakade revealed that he had used the fake call app and used Pawar’s number.
Chormale, Kakade and the other four involved in the conspiracy have been arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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