The Kashimira police in Mira road on Tuesday arrested two men and a woman for allegedly impersonating MLA Geeta Jain and her personal assistant (PA) over the phone, and attempting to dupe a hotelier by asking him to donate for a social cause.
On December 20, complainant Amir Mukhi, a hotelier by profession, received a phone call purportedly made by MLA Geeta Jain’s PA Aman Shelar. The fraudster told Mukhi they would be organising a function for marriages of widows, and needed him to donate money to the social cause. To convince Mukhi, a woman came on the phone and asked him to donate to the cause.
Mukhi suspected something amiss and approached the police. One of the accused, Amitkumar Patel, 54, went to Mukhi to collect the money and was arrested by Kashimira police officials. With the help of Patel, the police arrested his aides Siddesh Sawant, 42, who impersonated Shelar and the woman who impersonated the MLA. Patel is a villager of Gorai and Sawant a resident of Bhayandar. The police did not disclose the woman’s identity.
Senior inspector Sanjay Hazare of Kashmira police station said, “The accused were produced before a magistrate court and remanded to police custody till December 24.” They have been booked under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.