Journalism of Courage
In the third such case in the city,the city police on Friday arrested an alleged fake lawyer,Anil Murlidhar Kawle. He had been allegedly practising as a lawyer at the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) near Swargate and was reportedly on legal panels of three banks.
The complaint against Kawle,38,a resident of Dhankawdi and native of Osmanabad district,was lodged by advocate Sunil Jagtap,a member of the Pune Bar Association (PBA).
Khadak police arrested Kawle on Friday under sections 416,467,468,471 of the IPC. Kawle,who has studied only upto Class XII,had allegedly been posing as a lawyer at DRT for over 15 years,police said.
It has come to light that a few months ago,the Maharashtra-Goa Bar Council had received a complaint that Kawle was a fake lawyer. The council had written to PBA to probe. Advocate Amol Kajale Patil,secretary of the Pune Bar Association,received a formal complaint against Kawle on Thursday. Kajale Patil is also a member of the committee formed by PBA for accepting and inquiring into complaints about fake lawyers.
On receiving the complaint,the committee started gathering information from PBA members in DRT. Kawle was questioned and he told them he had a sanad to be a legal practitioner. But on Friday he reportedly admitted that he did not possess a sanad and assured PBA that he would not continue practice. PBA went ahead and lodged a police complaint against Kawle,who had worked as a clerk under a senior lawyer for a few years,but later started his own practice and was also appointed as a legal advisory panel of three banks.
It is shocking that Kawle was on the legal advisory panel of State Bank of India (SBI),Lavasa Bank and Corporation Bank. We appeal the banks to verify documents and records of a person before appointing him for any legal works, said Kajale Patil. We also appeal the court staff to verify lawyers identity while accepting any case. Also,lawyers are requested to support the verification process to keep a check on fraudsters, he added.
Last week,Uddhav Vinayak Kshetrapal was arrested for practising without valid papers. He had allegedly duped his clients of Rs 3.5 lakh.
On April 24,Mahendra Kawachale was arrested for allegedly impersonating as a lawyer and duping a businessman to the tune of Rs 3.93 lakh in 2010 on the pretext of representing him in various cases. He was also the defence counsel in the Jyotikumari rape-murder case and was replaced after the fraud came to light.
