Three people including a 40-year-old woman working as a clean-up marshal landed into the custody of the Kashimira police for seeking donations from a local hotelier by mimicking the voice of legislator- Geeta Jain.
The kingpin of the gang identified as- Siddhesh Sudhakar Samant alias Amit Shellar (42), who is a serial offender in such types of crimes has also been arrested by the police team.
This time, the gang called up the owner of Hotel Delhi Darbar and demanded Rs. 1 lakh as donation for a community function being organized to encourage remarriage of widows. While Samant used his impersonation skills by posing as the personal assistant of the legislator, the woman who works as a contractual clean-up marshal with the BMC mimicked the legislator.
The duo then sent their accomplice- Amitkumar Bhadrakant Parekh (54) at the hotel to collect the money. However, the hotel owner who grew suspicious got in touch with the legislator and realized that the callers were imposters. The legislator immediately informed the police who reached the spot and caught hold of Parekh.
Within two hours a team under the supervision of Senior Police Inspector- Sanjay Hazare apprehended the woman and the kingpin- Siddhesh Samant from their residence in Gorai and Bhayandar respectively.
A notorious fraudster, Samant is an expert in mimicking the voices of local politicians and has duped several people including builders and hoteliers by impersonating voices of corporators, MLAs and even MPs.
Eleven cases of similar frauds have been registered against him at police stations including Samata Nagar (Kandivali), Dahisar, Naya Nagar (Mira Road) and also with the Mumbai crime branch unit over the last decade. He was currently out on bail. Meanwhile, an offence under sections 120 (b), 170 and 419 of the IPC has been registered against the trio who have been remanded to four days of police custody. Further investigations were underway.
