Man poses as ex-home min's PA, cheats engineer of Rs 2.4L

MUMBAI: Marine Drive police on Monday booked two men for cheating a Gujarat engineer of Rs 2.4 lakh on the false promise of helping him get the necessary approval for an e-challan mobile app that he had created to reduce paper work for the Maharashtra traffic department.
One of the accused, Prashant Navghare, had posed as personal assistant of the then state home minister, Dilip Walse-Patil.
The 37-year-old electrical engineer in his complaint stated that he met Navghare at Akashwani canteen outside Mantralaya. Navghare introduced the complainant to one Nitesh Saudekar and claimed that Saudekar was a cyber security officer whose department would take a call on issuing approval for the complainant's application regarding the app. Navghare allegedly said that Rs 6 lakh would be needed to get the job done, and that of this Rs 1 lakh would be given to Saudekar. On Navghare's suggestion, the complainant applied for a gumasta licence with the BMC using the address of his sister who lives in Goregaon.
As per the FIR, the complainant paid Navghare Rs 2.38 lakh in cash and via online between January and July in 2022. The FIR said that Navghare during a WhatsApp call showed the complainant the 'approval letter' from the cyber security department. Later, the complainant received a work order at his sister's address. The complainant got suspicious after he found that the letter was printed on a plain paper and not on a government letterhead. It did not have a government seal and there were several spelling mistakes. When confronted, Navghare issued him a cheque of Rs 75,000 that allegedly bounced. Navghare and Saudekar have been booked under IPC section 170 (personating a public servant), cheating and forgery.