A man has been arrested for allegedly claiming to be an 'intelligence officer in the US government' and duping a woman from Pune of Rs 9.65 lakh. The accused, Amit Chavan, is a resident of Baramati and he met the woman on a relationship app. The 28-year-old woman, a textile designer, came in contact with Chavan on the app in March and they met each other in April. He allegedly introduced himself as Rahul Patil, an intelligence officer working for the US government. He allegedly told the woman that his office handles 154 countries and that he had come to India, which was “in his jurisdiction”, for investigation purposes. Later, the accused allegedly asked the woman to re-format her cell phone and laptop, saying “they were being watched”. He also allegedly took away the woman's laptop worth over Rs one lakh and never returned it. Chavan also took the money the complainant had saved for her business after assuring her that he would buy material required for the textile mill at lower cost from his friend in Gujrat. The woman transferred Rs 8.37 lakh to the bank accounts used by Chavan. After realising that she had been cheated, she filed a complaint with the cyber police station on June 30. Investigation revealed that the accused was based in Baramati, from where he was arrested.
