Dismissed police constable booked for forging docs to secure ₹18L loan
MUMBAI: A 54-year-old dismissed police constable was booked on Thursday for allegedly forging salary slips to get a loan from the Mumbai Police Cooperative Credit Society. The incident came to light when two policemen who were guarantors of his loan had to pay ₹18.33 lakh because he defaulted on the loan.
The accused, Sanjay Vishwanath Hatekar, a resident of Badlapur, allegedly assaulted the two police who went to his house to request him to pay the loan. After the incident, the two constables, through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, obtained all his documents and found out about the alleged fraud.
The complaint was registered by a female constable, Rekha Kumbhar, attached to the local arms. According to the police,
Hatekar worked with Kumbhar and Avinash Ghaste in the local arms department.
In 2018, Hatekar took a loan of ₹16 lakh from the Brihanmumbai Police Co-operative Housing Society. Later, from December 28, 2018, to June 11, 2021, Hatekar was suspended due to continuous absenteeism.
“He was reinstated in service on June 12, 2021, after which he met the complainant and Ghaste and told them he wanted to take a loan of ₹1.10 lakh and requested them to become guarantors to his loan as his financial condition was weak due to the suspension,” said a police officer.
Kumbhar and Ghaste learnt that he had applied for a loan of ₹17.10 lakh. “They immediately told him they could not become guarantors to his loan as the amount was big,” said a police officer. “However, he told them that he needed the money, and he would return the loan soon, so they finally signed as guarantors to the loan.”
“When I needed money in 2022, I went to the credit society, and I was denied a loan saying that I was a guarantor to the loan of Hatekar, who was dismissed from service in November 2021, and he had not paid the loan amount said Khumbhar. “When I called him, he kept saying that he would repay the loan, and finally, we got notices from the credit society that the money would be deducted from our salary. In April 2023, when I went to his house in Badlapur requesting him to pay the money, he assaulted me, and a case was registered at the Badlapur police station for assault.”
“We, thereafter, filed an RTI in the society to see what documents he had submitted to get the loan and found that in June 2021, he had submitted a salary slip which showed an income of ₹49,140, but we learnt he was suspended till 11th June 2021, so how can he get full month salary so realised he had forged the document. He had only got ₹4,163 that month,” said Kumbhar.
The accused was booked under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC.