Fake franking scam busted

A fake franking scam has come to light with the arrest of two historysheeters by the Khadki police

Fake franking scam busted

Au00a0fake franking scam has come to light with the arrest of two historysheeters by the Khadki police. After the arrests on Tuesday, more than 30 cases of fake franking on prepaid stamps and documents were detected and the police expect more to surface soon.

The two arrested were identified as Sameer Mubarak Maniyar (35) of Salunke Vihar and Nitin Madhav Wahalkar (47) of Dattawadi. Wahalkar has 31 fake franking cases against him while Maniyar has six cases registered at various police stations in the city. The suspects were produced before a local court yesterday. They were remanded in police custody till January 10.

Acting on a tip-off, a team led by Assistant Police Inspector Shree Ram Pol laid a trap near the sub-registrar's office on Aundh Road and arrested the two, who came in an Indica car. The suspects were at the sub-registrar's office to submit fake documents for registration.

"The two had been submitting documents with fake franking at Western Maharashtra Development Corporation (WMDC) in Shivajinagar on October 30 last year," said Pol. "Later the two suspects prepared property agreements of Rs 100 denomination, the total worth of which was Rs 57,800, and submitted it to the WMDC to obtain loans."

The officer said the WMDC officials grew suspicious and sought verification. The police said a fake property agreement with Vaibhav Srishti Developers, rubber stamps of Sub-registrar offices numbers 6, 7, 8, 14 and 19u00a0 in the city, blank franking papers, rubber stamps of WMDC, Shivajinagar, Jijamata Mahila Sahkari Bank, Jagdamba Construction, Siddheshwar Co-operative Housing Society, together worth Rs 2 lakh, were seized from the suspects.