A 30-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly posing as a government servant and duping several people. The police said the accused would either pose as a BMC or a Navy officer and under the pretext of facilitating flats or mobile phones at a cheaper rate, would take money and escape. According to police officials, the accused, identified as Shamik Mangle, who originally hails from Wardha, is a frequent visitor of dance bars while he is also addicted to gambling and would splash all the money earned by conning people over there. In a recent case for which Mangle was arrested by the DB Marg police, the investigators said he approached the complainant, a 53-year-old man, in August. ”The complainant owns a shanty near Mahalaxmi Race Course. All the neighbouring shanties have been redeveloped under the Punarvasan scheme, but owing to some discrepancies in the documents, the complainant's shanty was taken into consideration and he was not offered any rehabilitation,” an officer said. Taking advantage of the situation, Mangle called the complainant and offered to resolve the issue. He posed as a BMC officer, following which he called him to meet and escaped with Rs 44,000. "Mangle told him that in order to resolve his issue, he requires money to offer to his senior officials following which he took money from him," said an officer adding, "He asked him to send via Gpay and stopped answering his calls." The 53-year-old realised that he had been duped following which he approached the police and lodged a complaint.
