The economic offences wing of the Mumbai Police has trapped a state Government employee and an impersonator, posing as an executive engineer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), allegedly defrauded a city-based businessman.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing) Manoj Lohia said that the impersonator P S Sawant was arrested last night while B B Patil, a desk officer of PWD, was arrested today. The duo were remanded to police custody till August 27 by the Esplanade metropolitan court today.
Sawant had approached one Surendrarao Narayanrao Shinde, deputy general manager of Nerloc Company Ltd based in Goregaon here, earlier this month and informed him that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had given him authorisation of allotment of an open land at Andheri.
Sawant, who also produced a fake identity card, had told Shinde to keep ready the token money of Rs 5 lakh and prepare a Memorandum of Understanding for transfer of the land. However, getting suspicious, Shinde had approached the Economic Offences Wing, which arrested Sawant. Sawant spilled the beans and subsequently Patil too was nabbed by the police. Police have not ruled out the accused having defrauded others too.
Patil had earlier been arrested by the anti-corruption department while accepting a bribe from a complainant in Mantralaya, the state secretariat, Lohia said.
During a search operation at their residences, letter heads of Municipal Commissioners, Deputy Municipal Commissioners, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, Urban Development Minister, Revenue Minister, secretaries of Mantralaya were seized besides stamps.
