48-yr-old scamster on run for 2 yrs arrested

MUMBAI: A 48-year-old man was recently arrested for allegedly duping several hundred people of lakhs of rupees by bragging about his close relationship with a former Maharashtra minister and promising them plots in Baramati and Pune at cheaper rates.

The accused, identified as Santosh Manjare, who was arrested from his home in Solapur last week, had been escaping the police for nearly two years by changing his location. He had taken to sleeping in the farms to avoid police.

Manjare, along with another accused, Vanmala Kharat — who was arrested earlier—had in 2013 met the complainant, Khushalchandra Punekar, who wanted to buy a plot.

The duo told him they had good contacts at the Mantralaya and personally knew the then state minister. They promised Punekar a six-acre plot in Baramati for just ₹5.35 lakh under state quota. For this, they demanded ₹7.15 lakh, which Punekar gave them between August 2013 and January 2015.

However, later, the duo started avoiding him.

After realising he was cheated, Punekar approached the Govandi police in 2017 and a case was registered.

Although the police caught Kharat in May 2017, Manjare escaped. He even applied for anticipatory bail, but it was rejected in 2017.

An officer said they recently learnt Manjare was hiding in his village in Mohol taluka. “We learnt that he comes home at odd hours. Officers dressed up like villagers to keep an eye on him and caught him from a small shanty he had built in his farms while he was sleeping,” he said.

Further investigations revealed that Manjare was earlier arrested for a similar cheating case in Satara. He also allegedly cheated a Santacruz woman of ₹7.5 lakh.

According to another officer, Manjare allegedly built a bungalow in his village from the illgotten money. Police are trying to find where he spent the rest of the money.

THE 48-YEAR-OLD ACCUSED, SANTOSH MANJARE, WAS ARRESTED UNDER SECTIONS 420 AND 34 OF THE INDIAN PENAL CODE (IPC)