Navi Mumbai – Indradev Pandey
Around 10 days after a driver who worked for Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) on contract basis, was booked, CBD Belapur police has nabbed him from Koparkhairane. According to police, the accused, Sunil Dhumal, 48, had changed his number after he had cheated the complainant Prasad Ghorpade and his friend of Rs 80 lakh by promising a 500 acre land in return. In the investigations, police found the existing mobile number of the accused and traced him to Koparkhairane from where he was nabbed.
Ghorpade, a labour contractor by profession and a resident of Kolhapur had met the accused Dhumal in the year 2019 at his hometown wherein Dhumal introduced himself as a constable with CBI. He used to travel in car with red beacon and also carried a fake identity card. He had told Ghorpade that the forest department had gifted him a 500 acre land in Satara which he could sell. Dhumal presented a document and stated it to be court order from Dindoshi court stating that the land belongs to Dhumal. Along with that, he also produced a fake no objection certificate of forest department stating that the said plot has been given to Dhumal and he is free to sell it. Believing the claims of the accused, Ghorpade approached another friend, Prasad Jain to pitch in with the money. The trio had several meetings in Navi Mumbai and the first cash transaction happened in CBD Belapur. From the year 2021 to December 2023, Ghorpade and Jain collectively paid Rs 80 lakh to Dhumal.
After the payment was made, Ghorpade started asking for the final order of the land transfer in their name from Dhumal. Dhumal started giving evasive replies and later stopped taking his calls. Ghoarpade then enquired with the CBI office in Belapur and found that Dhumal was not a constable with CBI and was only a driver on contract basis. He then verified the ‘documents’ from court and forest department and found it to be fake. After realising the fraud, he had approached CBD Belapur police and registered a case for cheating and forgery. “The accused is in our custody till Friday and later would be again produced before the court. We are investigating if he had cheated any more people in similar way,” senior police inspector Giridhar Gore, said.
