Man posing as government official dupes bizman of Rs 2.75 crore, held

The Marine Drive police have arrested a man who recently duped an Amravati-based businessman to the tune of Rs 2.75 crore near Mantralaya by posing as a senior official from the state finance department.

Aniruddha Kulkarni alias Farooq Pathan, 34, was arrested on Tuesday night after he was brought to the city on a transit remand from Aurangabad, where he was arrested in a cheating case involving Rs 90 lakh. He is also allegedly the king pin of a group involved in similar cases.

According to the police, Kulkarni posed as a 'secretary' in the state finance department, and with the help of Aurangabad-based loan agent Anand Shastri, promised the complainant Chandrabhan Dembala, who runs a business of edible oil processing and a factory in Amravati, a loan of Rs 30 crore at 4 per cent (annual) interest from the state government.

Kulkarni, Shastri and others identified only as Jain, Pradnama and Sanjay, had allegedly taken Rs 2.75 crore from the victim near Mantralaya and in different hotels of south Mumbai on the pretext of processing fees and a refundable deposit. They later vanished and started ignoring victim's calls, the police said.

"The accused gave the complainant a suspected bogus government sanction letter for a loan of Rs 30 crore on the letter head of the state government," said an officer from Marine Drive police station.

Kulkarni claimed he was just an introducer and not the beneficiary and had nothing to do with the case. However, the police said that he is the main accused in the case, and are in process of recovering the money from him.