The Ahmedabad City police have cracked a cheating and impersonation racket wherein a 27-year-old, wanted for jumping parole in the murder of a teenager, used his 9-year experience within the confines of the judicial system to con the families of other jail inmates.
He would allegedly impersonate a public prosecutor serving in the Gujarat High Court and convince families of incarcerated persons to pay him for “not making adverse arguments” against the bail applications in court.
On the basis of information received by ASI Neerajkumar Sambhajitsingh and subsequent technical surveillance, Mayank Mansukh Sanghani (27), a resident of Jamnagar, was placed under arrest by Sola police in Ahmedabad.
On April 10, complainant Priya, wife of Harsh Kori (22), had filed a complaint stating that she had been cheated by a man claiming to be a public prosecutor in a case pertaining to her husband, who is accused of molestation and under sections of the POCSO Act. The complainant stated that her husband Harsh had been in jail for the last 18 months and that the process for his bail application is currently underway in the Gujarat High Court.
The complainant alleged that she received a call from an unknown number and the person said that he was a government lawyer in the HC. The person “promised not to make adverse arguments against the bail application”. The accused then “met” her and she allegedly paid him Rs 20,000 as per his demand.
It was only when the complainant informed her own lawyer about this that she realised she had been the victim of fraud and filed the complaint at Sola police station. The Sola police filed the FIR.
When police realised that the accused in the fraud and impersonation case was 27-year-old Mayank Sanghani, they said that they also realised that he was under trial for a murder he is accused to have committed in Jamnagar in 2016, when he was 18 years old.
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Sanghani had allegedly strangled a 16-year-old boy and had sought a ransom of Rs 2 crore from the father of the deceased teenager. He had been lodged at Jamnagar District Jail and had jumped parole last year, and was on the run from the police.
PI KN Bhukan of Sola police said, “Sanghani had jumped parole in June 2024 and had been absconding from the police since that time. He had used his lived experience of judicial proceedings to perpetrate the scams.”
A statement from the Sola Police said that the accused is a BCom graduate. Sanghani would allegedly look at the bail applications coming up for hearing on the website of the Gujarat High Court and then attempt to contact the families of the accused persons, impersonate the government prosecutor and then seek payment in lieu of “not making adverse arguments” against their bail pleas.
The police claim to have found evidence of at least one more such victim. Further investigation is underway.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd