Shelar: Historian poses as Shelar's personal assistant, dupes relatives of jailed criminals | Mumbai News

Mumbai: A History pages was arrested for allegedly impersonating BJP MP Ashish Shelarpersonal assistant and dizziness Family members of remand prisoners criminal and convicts.
Police said Amir Irfan Bendrekar would call lawyers posing as Shelar's lawyer. P.A. “Sharma” and collect the data of their clients, claiming that the state government will soon launch a program to release criminals from overcrowded prisons. The accused would then call the relatives of the criminals and ask them to transfer money under various pretexts, such as to pay for medical treatment in prison.
Bendrekar was arrested from his Nalasopara residence on Friday, hours after Shelar's PA Navnath Satpute filed a complaint.
Since July, several lawyers, including Vijendra Rai, Yasmin Wankhede, Iram Sayyed, Raes Khan and Afreen, had received calls from 'Sharma' claiming to be calling from Shelar's office or Mantralaya. Satpute told TOI, “The caller even imitated Shelar's voice to gain the trust of the lawyers and to get details about their clients' family members to carry out the scam.”
The scam came to light when Afreen received a call from the family of a jailed criminal. “The family said they received a call from Shelar's PA Sharma, who claimed that Rs 8,000 was needed for the medical treatment of the criminal after he sustained injuries in a fall as the jail authorities did not have the funds. The caller assured the family that the money would be refunded once the state government approved the grant,” a police official said.
Based on Satpute's complaint, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IX) Raj Tilak Roshan supervised a team comprising Bandra Chief Inspector of Police Sanjay Marathe, Assistant Inspector Vijay Achrekar, Assistant Sub-Inspector Ramesh Pednekar and staff. They tracked down Bendrekar and arrested him.
“We are collecting information about the total number of families that Bendrekar has cheated through this scheme,” the police officer said.