MUMBAI
A 40-year-old woman had been posing as a social worker and RTI activist and cheating people for the past three years.
A resident of Azad Nagar in Ghatkopar, Shabnam Patel (in pic) was arrested on Wednesday.
Her latest victim was a 60-year-old man. She produced a forged agreement saying she had paid him Rs1 lakh for his autorickshaw and took away the vehicle.
“Patel was arrested for forgery and cheating and the police seized the autorickshaw,” said Rajaram Vhanmane, senior police inspector of Ghatkopar police station. On April 3, Patel went to Salim Kazi’s house at Ashok Nagar in Ghatkopar (West) when he was alone and took the possession his autorickshaw with the help of forged agreement saying that she had paid him Rs 1 lakh.
The next day Kazi’s family found out she had taken away the autorickshaw without paying. Kazi lodged a complaint at Ghatkopar police station. Since then, she was on the run.
The police also learnt that Patel used to have affairs with youth in Ghatkopar and Saki Naka and extort money from them. If they refused, she used to file molestation complaints against them. She has filed three molestation complaints at Ghatkopar police station in the past two years, said inspector Rajkumar Kothmire.
Patel had also tried to cheat 63-year-old Shakuntala Salve, a widow living at Bhatwadi in Ghatkopar (West), in May 2013 by forcibly taking her house. Salve lodged a complaint against her. Her husband Sharif left her three years ago and the couple has a 15-year-old daughter.