Acting on a specific tip-off from the Military Intelligence unit of the Army's Southern Command, the crime branch unit of Satara Police arrested a man who impersonated an "Army Jawan" and duped many aspirants for lakhs of rupees on the pretext of helping them in recruitment, said officials on Tuesday.
Satara Police has registered three different FIRs against the accused who is identified as Pravin Shivaji Margaje.
The arrested accused is a resident of Kanhawadi in Khandala taluka of Satara district.
During the search operations, police along with MI have recovered forged identity cards, Indian Army uniforms, four mobile phones, bank passbooks, SIM cards, and cartridges of airguns from him.
After getting information about Margaje's presence in Kanhawadi in Khandala taluka on Monday, a joint team of MI and Satara Police nabbed him red-handed for taking money from prospective youth for getting them recruited into Army.
He had been taking Rs 9 lakh from each aspirant candidate - Rs 4.5 lakh before and Rs 4.5 lakh after recruitment, police informed.
The accused, Margaje has been arrested in a case registered under IPC sections 420 and 34 at Dahiwadi Police station and sent to police custody for seven days by the Satara Magistrate Court, police added.
Police said that Assistant Police Inspector Santosh Tasgaonkar is further investigating the case.
Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Satara Police Ajay Kumar Bansalmade a public appeal that whoever is being duped by the accused shall come forward and registered the complaint against him.
