Mumbai Crime: Accused held in fake currency scam names two cops

A Gujarat-based businessman, conned through a fake currency scheme of Rs 13 lakh, recently led the police to arrest two of the accused involved.

The accused have named two policemen as allegedly involved in the fraud. The police said the accused could be running a fake currency scheme racket to target businessmen and might have conned others.

The arrested accused were identified as Shabaz Sanghwani, 25, and Aabid Ismail Shah, 33, residents of Malwani. The other accused yet to be arrested are identified as Jaysingh Rathod, Aasif Sanghwani and Rafiq Bhatti. The two police personnel allegedly involved are PSI Anil Sonawane and Constable Daavid Bansode of the Malwani police.

The incident

The complainant, identified as Yagnesh Krishna Kumar Pandya, 28, has a charcoal business and is a resident of Jamnagar. According to the complaint, in the lockdown Pandya sustained a huge loss in business and to recover it, he met accused Jaysingh Rathod and Rajan Dave. They allegedly presented him a scheme which involved them giving him Rs 10,000 fake currency notes to deposit in a bank. They convinced him no one would know it was fake currency. The accused then told Pandya that if he gave them Rs 15 lakh genuine Indian currency, they would give him R1 crore fake currency and banks would accept it. Pandya managed to arrange R13 lakh from a Mumbai-based wholesaler, Mahendra Thakkar, to pay the accused.

On August 25 the accused took Pandya who brought Rs 13 lakh, to Malwani where he and Sanghwani were sitting in a car, when PSI Sonawane and Constable Bansode arrived and seized the money.

They allowed Pandya to escape. When Pandya later spoke to Rathod, he was told the others were caught by the police. But Pandya was suspicious and checked with Malwani police about the incident.

When he found that no such incident was registered with them, he realised he had been cheated. He approached the Malwani police. A case was registered under sections 392 (robbery), 420 (cheating), 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 34 (common intention).

Police inspector Vinod Kanvane of Malwani police arrested Sanghwani and Shah on August 26. During interrogation they allegedly told PI Kanvane that PSI Sonawane and Constable Bansode were involved in the racket. Police said the two cops are yet to be arrested.

Police speak

Additional Commissioner, Dilip Sawant of North region said, "We registered an offence against the police personnel. There are allegations against PSI Sonawane and Constable Bansode by the arrested accused. We are conducting an indepth inquiry into this matter."

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