Mumbai Crime: Imposter who worked in BMC for 28 years finally held

Shelar said he had got the fake papers made with the help of the tehsildar’s office of Junnar taluka

The Azad Maidan police have arrested a man accused of working for the BMC for 28 years on fake documents. The corporation had last month filed a case against the man, who had joined as a gardener in 1993. The imposter, whose real name is Ramesh Maruti Shelar, was arrested from south Mumbai. The police said he has two PANs and as many Aadhaars - one in his own name and the other as per the stolen identity.

Shelar allegedly used photocopies of all the documents of a BMC peon, named Sopan Maruti Sable who joined in 1989, to secure a job in the civic body. His bluff was called only recently following an audit and he was asked to produce original papers. In all these years, he drew salaries of about Rs 43 lakh. Sources said Shelar has told the police that a person in the Tehsildar's office of Junnar taluka had arranged the forged documents for him. Shelar apparently has told the police that he got the BMC job through a person named Kisan.

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The police have also come across two bank accounts of the accused - one in his own name and the other as Sable which was also his salary account. They said he used to transfer money from his salary account to the other and transactions helped them track him down. Shelar lives in Kalwa and is single.

"We will verify whatever Ramesh Shelar is telling, the person who gave him the fake documents 28 years ago will have to be found," a police officer told mid-day. Bhushan Belnekar, the senior inspector from Azad Maidan police station, said, "We have arrested the accused Ramesh Shelar on a complaint by the BMC. We produced him in the court which remanded him in police custody till August 20."

In 2017, the BMC wanted to verify the credentials of a peon and a gardener after finding them identical, including the father's name and date of birth. As it sought to check the original papers, the imposter stopped reporting to work. Officials said they waited for the gardener to return to hear his version. While they wanted to file a case last year, it got delayed due to the pandemic.