New FIR against woman posing as PMO’s national advisor, transactions of Rs 14.73 cr under scanner

In the FIR, the woman stated that Kashmira allegedly made her open a bank account for the business. But later Kashmira and her aides allegedly used the bank account for transactions of nearly Rs 14.73 crore, the FIR mentions.

Police have booked Kashmira, her close associate Ganesh Gaikwad and a few more aides in the case under sections 170, 320, 465, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 472, 473 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 55 (c) of the Information Technology Act.

As stated in the FIR, the complainant is a resident of Ravet in Pune. Her husband works with the Fire Brigade in Mumbai. In 2019, her sister’s friend Anil Waydande had introduced her to Kashmira as a “national advisor” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Waydande said Kashmira can give the complainant a tender for supplying uniforms for schools in the state, the FIR mentions.

Accordingly, in November 2019, Kashmira came along with six persons for a meeting with the complainant at a hotel in Satara. Kashmira introduced the six persons as her “team” and presented some documents and news reports showing that she was working with the PMO.

Later, as per Kashmira’s instructions, the complainant procured a shop Act licence, bank accounts in the name of a firm “Indian Supplies”, GST number in Mumbai, for the business of supplying uniforms, the FIR stated.

It further mentions, in January 2020, Kashmira and her aides allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh from the complainant for giving the tender. The complainant paid Rs 2 lakh. Kashmira then allegedly gave her a fake tender copy of Rs 5 crore, carrying details of supplying uniforms to schools in Pune and Satara and signature of “Deputy Secretary, Government of India”. Kashmira allegedly asked the complainant to arrange money for the tender, which would give a profit of Rs 2.5 crore.

But, as stated in the FIR, in February 2020, Kashmira allegedly said that tender cannot be given to the complainant, because her firm’s account is not showing big transactions. Kashmira and Waydande then allegedly took the passbook, signed cheques of the bank account for making it “strong” by carrying out big transactions, it is stated.

The FIR mentions that till February 2022, transactions of Rs 14,73,40,485 were done from this account, but the complainant was not given any tender for school uniforms. Complainant told the police that after Waydande passed away in October 2022, she came to know that Kashmira and her aides cheated many people. But they assured to return her money, hence she did not file a complaint then.

When contacted, Samir Shaikh, superintendent of Satara police, confirmed that action is being taken against Kashmira and other accused in this case.

Meanwhile, police have launched a probe into the multi-crore financial transactions that the accused have done using the bank account of “Indian Supplies” firm.

In December 2017, the media had reported about Kashmira’s “appointment” as national advisor to the PMO. The reports claimed she communicated with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval via videoconferencing from the Satara District Collector’s office, besides talking to other top PMO bureaucrats.

However, in December 2022, a Satara-based hotelier Phillip Bhambal filed a police complaint that Kashmira and her associate were allegedly cheating people by falsely claiming she was a national advisor to the PMO.

But the Satara police lodged an FIR on January 4, 2023 against an “unidentified person” for IPC section 170 (personating a public servant). And, on January 10, 2023, based on Kashmira’s complaint, Satara police filed an extortion FIR against Bhambal and others for allegedly demanding and taking money from her following a financial dispute.

Aggrieved, Bhambal approached Bombay High Court seeking directions to transfer the probe in his complaint to CID or CBI. Meanwhile, nearly one and a half years after the FIR was lodged, the Satara police arrested Kashmira and Ganesh, both residents of Satara City, for their alleged involvement in the offence on June 19, 2024. The next day itself, both accused were released on bail by a court in Satara.

Also their arrest had taken place just two days after a separate FIR was lodged against them at the Bundgarden police station in Pune city on June 17, for allegedly cheating a Pune based businessman Gorakh Maral (49) of Rs 50 lakh. Maral alleged that claiming to be a national advisor at PMO, Kashmira and Ganesh assured to get him a tender for government work.

In July this year, the high court raised doubts on the investigation by Satara police and had asked the SP to monitor the probe.

Meanwhile, Kashmira’s statement in the extortion FIR against Bhambal mentioned she has a master’s degree in sociology and that a project on the Centre’s “Make In India” and “Rural Development Project” done by her, along with other students and teachers while she was at Satara’s Chhatrapati Shivaji College around 2014-15, bagged the first prize in 2016.