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A retired bank officer was allegedly defrauded of Rs 4 crore over a period of four years by his 31-year-old relative, who posed as a Military Intelligence (MI) officer, the Parvati police in Pune said, adding that four people were booked in the case.
The suspect allegedly took the money under the pretext of processing fees, claiming he was about to receive Rs 38 crore from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for a work he had carried out, officers said.
The police identified the accused as Shubham Sunil Prabhale and four of his family members, including his father, mother and brother. They were booked under sections 204 (personating a public servant) and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Nandakumar Gaikwad, Senior Inspector, Parvati, said, “We have launched a search for the suspect. Further investigation is on.”
Investigators said the First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered on Monday by a 53-year-old resident of Dattawadi who retired as a senior officer from a cooperative bank headquartered in Pune. Between January 2020 and September 2024, the suspect took Rs 4.06 crore from the complainant in multiple instalments, including cash and online transfers.
An officer from Parvati police station said, “Some time ago, Prabhale started claiming that he was an officer with the Military Intelligence. After a while, he told the complainant that he was going to get Rs 38 crore from the Ministry of Defence for the work he had carried out. The complainant trusted the accused and gave him money on multiple occasions.”
“When the complainant would ask for his money back, the accused would make him talk to various people who identified themselves as officers with the Ministry of Defence and claimed that Prabhale was going to get the money soon,” the officer added.
The police said the complainant gave money to Prabhale from his savings and from his wife’s bank accounts. He also borrowed money from his nephew and sold properties, including a flat, a shop, a piece of land, and a car, to keep sending money to the accused.
“The fraudsters posing as defence officers kept promising the complainant that the file was getting cleared. The complainant has claimed that the family members of the accused, including his father, mother and brother, were involved in the fraud. After realising that he had been cheated, the complainant approached the police,” the officer said.
