An Additional Superintendent of Police working in the Pune Crime Investigation Department (CID) has been arrested for cheating a hotelier in Mahabaleshwar. The arrested suspect, identified as Srikant Namdevrao Kolhapure, was produced in Wai court and remanded to police custody for five days on Monday.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered against nine individuals in the Wai police station related to this fraud. Three of the accused have already been arrested, and with Kolhapure's arrest, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to four.
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Demand of ₹2.5 crore was made
The complainant, Hemant Balkrishna Salvi, is the owner of Meghdoot Hotel in Mahabaleshwar. Srikant Kolhapure, along with his associates Hanumant Munde, Abhimanyu Ramdas Dedge, and Balu Babasaheb Puri, allegedly demanded ₹2.5 crore from Salvi, claiming they would secure an official liquor license for his hotel. The suspects collected ₹1.05 crore from Salvi through a combination of cash and cheques. However, after failing to obtain the promised liquor license, Salvi realised he had been defrauded and filed a complaint with the Additional Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Pune.
Following an extensive investigation, it was determined that the crime was serious, leading to a case being registered at Wai Police Station. Three of the suspects, Hanumant Vishnudas Munde, Abhimanyu Ramdas Dedge, and Balu Babasaheb Puri, had already been arrested by the Crime Investigation Department, and efforts to apprehend the remaining suspects are ongoing.
A special team, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Ganesh Mali, Police Inspector Varsha Kavde, and officers Vijay Kumbhar, Nivrutti Padekar, Jamir Mulla, and Swapnil Jadhav, arrested Srikant Kolhapure at the Khatvali Toll Naka on the Nashik-Mumbai highway in Thane. He was taken into custody and later produced in Wai court, where he was remanded to five days of police custody.