The Bundgarden police officials yesterday arrested two persons, including a junior clerk with the licensing department at Pune police commissionerate, for forging documents for an arms licence.
The accused were identified as Kailas Sadashiv Bhosale (43), the junior clerk and a resident of Chinchwad, and Ajay Ramesh Agarwal (46), a resident of Sinhgad Road. The police officials said that Agarwal had given Bhosale Rs 40,000 to issue an arms license for one Vasant Kokane.
Bhosale had been working with the licensing department for several years and was acquainted with Agarwal. “A few days ago, Bhosale approached Agarwal and asked him for a loan to which Agarwal refused. But he told Bhosale that he would give him Rs 40,000 if he helped him obtain a duplicate arms licence for Kokane, by forging records,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Admin) Jayant Naiknavare said.
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Though Kokane had a revolver, he lacked an arms licence. He had once spoken to Agarwal about obtaining an arms licence. After conspiring with Bhosale, Agarwal approached Kokane and told him that there is a special quota in the commissioner office for arms licence and if he were ready to pay Rs 1.5 lakh, he would help him to obtain a licence. Kokane, who believed Agarwal, agreed to pay the amount thinking that he would be obtaining a new licence legally.
Modus operandi
“Bhosale, who was working with the department, allegedly inserted a page into the 2008 records and showed that Kokane was issued an arms licence in 2008. He then put up a new application for issuance of a duplicate licence, stating that Kokane had lost the original one. Later, Bhosale got the signatures from the concern official,” Naiknavare said.u00a0Soon after Bhosale procured the signatures, Kokane was issued a new arms licence.u00a0
Fraud exposed
The matter came to light when Kokane told one of his friends, a police constable, that he obtained the licence via a special quota and paid Rs 1.5 lakh for it. The constable told Kokane there was no such thing as a special quota in the licensing department and said that something was fishy.
“The constable and Kokane approached the licensing department in-charge, Sunil Malyanmath, and the fraud came to light after the 2008 records were checked. During scrutiny, it was discovered that an extra page was inserted by Bhosale to show that Kokane, earlier, had been issued an arms licence,” Naiknavare said.
Police Inspector (Crime) of Bundgarden police station Satish Nikam said that both Bhosale and Agarwal were had been booked under Sections 420, 465, 467 and 468 of the IPC.u00a0“They have been remanded to police custody till July 21,” Nikam said.u00a0Nikam, while seeking police custody of the accused, told the court that they wanted to investigate whether Bhosale had committed similar crimes in the past and whether anybody else from the office was involved in the case.u00a0“We also recovered Rs 50,000 from Bhosale and also need to investigate the source of the money,’ Nikam said. u00a0
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