A 27-year-old man, who was arrested by Colaba police last week for allegedly duping a chemist posing as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officer, has been rearrested by the police for similarly duping another chemist from Colaba. The accused has been identified as Rahul Sarate while his accomplice Surekha Patil is at large, said police.
According to the police, the complaint was registered by a 49-year-old chemist Anil Waghela who runs a medical shop by name Chamunda chemist near Colaba Causeway. On June 7, a man named Samarth Kulkarni posing as FDA inspector called Waghela and said that one customer named Surekha Patil had filed a complaint against the shop for allegedly selling expired Bournvita. He then threatened to penalise, and seal the medical shop, and to avoid action he asked Waghela to contact Patil and settle the issue.
When contacted, Patil claimed that after eating the 'expired' product her son had to be hospitalised for two days and threatened the chemist that as soon as her complaint gets registered, FDA officials will seal his shop. After repeated requests from the chemist Patil agreed for settlement and asked him to pay ₹ 18,300 as a fine.
Victim first paid ₹ 10,000 and asked her for some time to pay the remaining amount however Patil was repeatedly calling him for the remaining money, Suspecting a con, Waghela did not pay the remaining money and decided to approach the police.
Following the complaint the Colaba police arrested Sarate in a separate offence under charges of cheating, impersonation and booked him under sections of Information Technology Act. Sarate was produced before the court on Monday which remanded him to police custody till June 16.
Advocate Sunil Pandey who represented Sarate in the court said that, "there are no direct evidence against his client and the complaint has been filed with malafide intentions".
