Mumbai: Tired of police inaction, citizens nab conman in Andheri

Accused Sandeep Aher

Fed up with the pace of police work over nabbing a serial conman, a group of citizens decided to catch the fraudster who posed as a politician, director, and producer to cheat dozens of people. He would promise them a flat through his artists' quota or offer them a role in his films.

A trap was laid by a couple of complainants and Sandeep Aher was finally caught outside Andheri railway station on Friday afternoon. The complainants took help of DN Nagar police chowki outside the station to detain him and handed him over to the Oshiwara police. However, they have alleged that with just a non-cognisable offence report filed against Aher, the cops released him in a few hours.

Also Read: Conman dupes resident of Rs 2 lakh, arrested in Mankhurd

Director Amitraj Surya (third from right) with the other complainants

Writer-director Amitraj Surya was among Aher's victims. "We worked hard to get him arrested but the cops released him. After I got in touch with the senior officers, they registered an FIR but the accused was released before that," said Surya, who is also a relative of actor Govinda. Aher had met him through a common friend and promised to get him an Rs 1.5-crore MHADA flat for just Rs 25 lakh. He took Rs 2,300 from Surya after which he stopped responding to the director's calls.

The Mira Road, Dindoshi, Dahisar, Juhu, Versova, and DN Nagar police too have registered a non-cognizable offence against Aher. Santosh Kulkarni, who works at a production company, aided Surya in nabbing Aher.

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A meeting was fixed between Aher and Kulkarni outside Andheri railway station on Friday, near the DN Nagar police chowki. A police officer was informed about the plan. Once he arrived, Kulkarni engaged in a deliberate argument with him and the police officer took the two to the chowki and he was nabbed. Kulkarni too was cheated by Aher for Rs 15,000.

According to the complainants, the accused used his photographs with Bollywood celebrities to gain their trust. "There are photos of him with Shilpa Shetty, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tinu Aanand, etc," said Surya.

Also Read: Special police team fails to nab conman before he flees for honeymoon

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