EOW books husband of IPS officer for duping 20 people of Rs 25 crore

EOW officials said that after conducting a due preliminary inquiry for weeks, they got an FIR filed at the Colaba police station and took over the investigation. Besides Chavan, other accused named in the FIR includes Prasad Desai, Sanjay Patil, Ganesh Patil, Deepak More, N D Nirmale, Govind Sawant, Shashank Limaye, Yashwant Pawar, assistant sub-registrar and officials from Parel-Sewri stamp registration office and others who directly and indirectly helped main culprit prepare duplicate documents.

The FIR was filed on the complaint of Sion-based businessman Kedar Degwekar, 57, who was known to Chavan since 2019.

According to the FIR, Chavan defrauded the complainant and other people by accepting money in his account from other accused’s accounts under the pretext of selling them government quota properties (lands and flats) on concessional prices using his clout in the Mantralay and other government departments.

To sound genuine, Chavan pretended to have registered their properties with the sub registrar’s office at Thane 5 and Stamp Registration Office at Parel-Sewri. The accused took photographs of the fake documents and sent them to victims pretending to be genuine and also gave them photocopies of the same, states the FIR.

“Chavan told us that we will have to give money to him and then he would deposit it with the government and then the procedure of the allotment of house from the government quota will be done and we will get possession, to which I agreed,”  Kedar Degwekar, the complainant, stated in the FIR.

“Like me the accused accepted money from 19 other victims and gave them bogus agreement for sale documents which had names of official sellers from the government quota flats as Prasad Desai, Sanjay Patil, Ganesh Patil, Deepak More, N D Nirmale, Govind Sawant, Shashank Limaye and Yashwant Pawar,” Degwekar alleged in his statement.

The alleged crime took place in the house above Colaba police station, the official government residence of Chavan’s IPS officer wife, claims the complaint. The EOW will soon be recording the statement of the IPS officer to check her role, if any. Chavan is currently in jail as he was arrested by ED in the past in connection with another case.

Chavan and other accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.

ED first detected irregularities

The irregularities surfaced when the Enforcement Directorate was investigating Chavan’s role in another case, the Rs 263 crore Income Tax Refund (ITR) fraud case.

Chavan was arrested by the ED on May 20, 2024 in that case. Before him ED had arrested former Income Tax Officer Tanaji Mandal Adhikari, Bhushan Patil, Rajesh Shetty and Rajesh Brijlal Batreja.

The prime accused in the ITR fraud case Adhikari, whom the Central agency arrested in 2023 along with others was involved in fraudulently generating and issuing TDS refunds from the Income Tax Department to the tune of Rs 263.95 crore.

Batreja allegedly diverted Proceeds of Crime (POC) of the said ITR fraud to Chavan, who he allegedly extended help to other accused in keeping the proceeds of the crime off the law enforcer’s radar.

After Chavan’s role surfaced in the ED’s probe, on May 19, the ED carried out searches at his and his IPS wife’s Colaba house and seized several property documents.

These documents were of various properties worth crores, including several pieces of land and residential flats in Mumbai and Thane.

After checking the authenticity of these seized documents when ED contacted the people mentioned as owners of the said properties and also checked with the government departments concerned, the ED officials were surprised to find out that documents for 10 to 12 properties recovered from Chavan do not even exist in reality, the agency source said.

It has been also found that these documents are fake and were prepared by forging the signatures of government officials. Later these forged documents were registered as genuine through a registrar.

ED submitted details of this cheating and forgery with the Mumbai police EOW and requested that a fresh criminal case be lodged in the irregularities surfaced during their probe.

The ED reportedly did not find anything that points out the direct role of Chavan’s IPS officer wife in helping him. However, the agency questioned her staff and recorded their statement to know how Chavan operated.

ED may now register a fresh ECIR on the basis of the predicate offence filed by EOW, and launch a fresh financial probe.

Sources also claimed that the IPS officer in question has filed for divorce from her husband on the grounds of mental cruelty, financial harassment, incompatibility, husband’s bipolar disorder, and his concealment of financial dealings.