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For a year, fake police inspector fooled Kalachowkie cops

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illustration: Sudhir Shetty

The Kalachowkie police knew 34-year-old Mukesh Dashrath Hande of Chembur as their own. For at least a year and a half, he used to visit the Kalachowkie police station, telling the occupants he was a fellow cop. He would also take part in the Lalbaug Ganeshotsav bandobast. He would claim that the police control room, where he was posted, had sent him to accompany VVIPs for darshan.

But when the Kalachowkie police recently called up the police control room to inform it about Hande's hospitalisation, they were surprised to hear that no one by his name worked there.

Police said that Hande was apparently unemployed. His claims of having connections with important people were, of course, false. So was the police uniform which he wore proudly. He even had the police insignia on the uniform. Police are investigating whether the insignia is genuine, and if so, where he got it from.

Hande was in touch with a woman who runs a cake shop in Kalachowkie. He had promised to bag her a municipal tender, claiming that he was a police inspector with good contacts. The two spoke regularly over the phone, police said.

On November 19, Hande's cover was blown when his wife, who is a clerk with Mumbai police, suspected him of having an affair. Her suspicions were aroused when she overheard him speaking to women over the phone on a regular basis.

"On that day, Hande's wife confronted him. In order to stop the argument, he drank a bottle which reportedly contained a floor-cleaning substance, and collapsed in front of Kalachowkie police station. The cops rushed him to hospital, where, as per protocol, the control room was informed. We were left shocked when the control room officials informed us that nobody by the name of police inspector Mukesh Hande was posted with them," said an officer from the Kalachowkie police station.

"Hande has been arrested on charges of cheating and impersonating a public servant," said senior police inspector Bhausaheb Gite of Kalachowkie police station.

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