ATS cop arrested for cheating senior citizen of Rs 62 lakh

The Meghwadi police in Andheri have arrested five persons including a police sub-inspector (PSI) attached to the city's Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) for allegedly cheating a senior citizen out of R 62 lakh by promising him an apartment from the chief minister's quota.

The PSI, Dilip Bhosale, had introduced himself as a retired officer from the ATS now attached to the state chief minister's security staff. On Friday, the police arrested Bhosale and his accomplises, Rajesh Upadhyay, Sanjay Mehta, Jagjitsingh Ashra and Anil Purohit. Bhosale was posted at the ATS headquarter in Nagpada.

Bhosale's dubious double life came to light when Shettiyar Khodadad Irani (60) a resident of C-601, Vastunidhi Pump House, in Andheri complained to the cops about being cheated by a man who had promised him a flat from the CM quota but had vanished after taking the money from him and handing over some fake documents. Irani is a contractor by profession and lives with his son, who is handicapped. In January this year, one of the accused, Upadhyay, told Irani he would be able to get his handicapped son a flat through the CM quota.

When Irani agreed, Upadhyay introduced him to Bhosale as a retired ATS officer now posted as part of Prithviraj Chavan's security team. After taking R 10.25 lakh from the accused, the gang handed over a purported ‘allotment letter' to Irani. Irani told cops he did not suspect anything amiss as the letter had the names of 11 other allottees.

Between January 12 to June 1, the gang took R 45 lakh in cash and R 17.10 lakh through demand draft (DD) from Irani ssd payment for the flat. It was only when Irani failed to get a final possession letter even after six months, he approached the local collector's office as he had issued the DD in the name of the collector office. "He was shocked when the collector's office informed him that all documents were forged. Irani then approached the Meghwadi police and we registered an FIR against the accused," a police officer attached to the police station told SMD.

Finally, late on Friday morning, the cops nabbed the gang. "We have arrested Bhosale and the others. The court has remanded them to police custody till June 18. We had initially suspected that someone was posing as an ATS officer so we were shocked when the trail led us to Bhosale," said Gyaneshwar Ganore, Inspector Meghwadi police station and investigation officer in the matter.