Two more fake lawyers caught in Pune

Pune police on Monday arrested two fake lawyers, Mangla Kamlakar Rathod, 43, and Satish Vithoba Shivshavan, 45, for allegedly practicing as lawyers at the Pune district collectorate in the Bund Garden area. 

With the arrest of these two fake lawyers, a total of five such advocates have been identified in the last six months. 

An advocate, Asha Vasantrao Bhagwat, 40, of Dhayri, had registered a complaint with the Bund Garden police station about Rathod and Shivshavan. They had allegedly been posing as lawyers at the collector’s office for more than six years, the police said. 

On Monday afternoon, a team of Pune Bar Association (PBA) went to the district collector’s office to locate office space for PBA lawyers practising at the collectorate. While checking the identity cards of the lawyers, they stumbled upon the fact that they were impostors. 

The senior police inspector of Bund Garden police station, UN Sonawane said, “When PBA members asked Rathod and Shivshavan for identity cards and sanad, the suspects showed them photo-copies of their sanads. PBA members realised that the documents were fake," he said. 

The police have recovered fake stamps, identity cards, visiting cards, stamp pad, PAN card and court fee stamps from the suspects. 

The police said Rathod had completed her graduation and was currently doing a course in labour law. Shivshavan had failed in his BCom examination.