Alert ex-soldier helps police nab impostor in Ahmednagar

PUNE: Thanks to an eagle-eyed retired soldier, the Kotwali police have arrested a 45-year-old man, who allegedly posed as a lieutenant colonel in Ahmednagar.
The incident occurred at the Ahmednagar bus station on Wednesday. The retired soldier noticed the impostor’s fake Army uniform, medals and ribbons.
The former soldier, Rajram Gavali, who served in the Mechanised Infantry Regiment of the Indian Army for 24 years, currently works in the control room of the bus stand.
On Wednesday afternoon, the veteran spotted the suspect wearing the Army uniform waiting at the stand. “Since he was in uniform, I approached to help him,” Gavali told TOI over the phone.
During the conversation, Gavali enquired about the man’s service, posting and units. “He told me that he was posted in the parachute unit, but his uniform did not match. This prompted me to examine the service ribbons on the uniform, which were not in proper order. These two factors convinced me that he was not an Army officer,” Gavali said.
He immediately called up the adjutant of the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre in Ahmednagar. “While I was on the phone, the man got suspicious. He immediately removed his shirt, put it in his bag and left the bus stand. A duty officer and I chased him for some distance and nabbed him. When we asked him for his identity card, he started abusing us. We took him to a nearby police chowkey, where he revealed his real name,” Gavali further said.
Meanwhile, Army personnel from MIRC and Army intelligence staff soon arrived the chowky and questioned him. “Under questioning, he conceded that he was not an army officer,” Gavali said
“We have recovered one fake stamp of the Maratha Light Infantry, a fake Army uniform, six debit cards, mobile phones with six SIM cards, over Rs10,000 in cash, and duplicate air pistol with 40 rounds from his possession,” a police officer said.
The man has been identified as Sanjay Vithoba Patil, a resident of Haathkhamba village in Ratnagiri.
The police have arrested him under sections 171 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police said they are in the process of ascertaining the man’s motive. “At the moment, we suspect that the man has duped people by making false promises of helping them get jobs in the Indian army. Our investigation is on,” added the officer.
Last October, the Chandannagar police in Pune booked a cyber-crook, who posed as an Army jawan and duped a man from Wadgaonsheri of Rs84,600 on the pretext of selling him a motorcycle online.