Pune Rural Police has arrested two persons for allegedly posing as Naval officers and cheating several youths on false assurances of recruiting them in Indian Army and Navy.
The two accused have been identified as Nitin Tanaji Jadhav (30), a resident of Kalpana Nagar in Baramati and Akash Kashinath Dange (25), a resident of Phaltan in Satara.
According to police, Kishor Dada Jadhav, a resident of Kurkumbh village in Daund taluka of Pune district, had lodged a complaint at Bhigwan police station against Jadhav and Dange two months ago.
According to the complaint, the duo had assured to provide job of store keeper at INS Shivaji, Lonavala, to Kishor. They had donned the Navy uniform while meeting Kishor and allegedly took Rs 3.8 lakh from Kishor at Bhigwan and Lonavala. Later, they sent him a forged appointment letter of Navy, medical certificate, admit card and other documents from a fraudulent email. Kishor then approached Sandip Patil, Superintendent of Pune Rural Police, who ordered the local crime branch (LCB) to investigate the matter.
The LCB team, led by Senior Police Inspector Padmakar Ghanwat, launched arrested Jadhav and Dange.
“Probe revealed that the duo have duped about 150 persons, mostly unemployed undergraduates, from Pune, Satara, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Osmananbad, Wardha, Washim, Jalgaon and parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha by accepting about Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from each on false assurances of getting them jobs in the Navy… The two were produced before a court, which has remanded them to police custody for 10 days,” said Ghanwat.
Police said probe was on to know if more persons were involved in the racket.
Meanwhile, the police have appealed to all those persons who have been cheated by Jadhav and Dange to contact the local crime branch and register their complaints.