The police said that Sapkal, a diploma holder in information technology, while posing as a NIA officer, sent the woman a marriage proposal on a matrimonial website in the first week of September. (Representational)A 25-year-old man has been arrested for posing as a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officer after the woman he was wooing wrote to the agency seeking information about him.
The Gamdevi police arrested Harshad Sapkal from Nashik on Thursday for allegedly posing as a NIA officer and trying to defraud a 21-year-old woman from south Mumbai. He was arrested after NIA officers approached Gamdevi police and filed a complaint on November 13.
The police said that Sapkal, a diploma holder in information technology, while posing as a NIA officer, sent the woman a marriage proposal on a matrimonial website in the first week of September. The woman responded, following which the two started chatting and exchanged cellphone numbers.
To gain her trust, Sapkal also sent the woman photographs of his identity card and pictures in NIA uniform, said police.
“However, these things raised suspicion in her mind and she wrote to the NIA inquiring whether this man was employed with the agency. She also attached the photographs he had sent of his identity card and uniform,” said Senior Inspector Rajendra Mohite of Gamdevi police station.
“The NIA went through its records and found no officer was employed with it by that name. They replied to the email, informing the woman of this, and filed a police complaint,” said an officer.
Following this, a case was registered on charges of cheating by impersonation, personating a public servant, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
During the course of investigation, the police located Sapkal in Nashik. “His phone was switched off for a few days, due to which we could not trace him. However, on Wednesday night, we learnt that he is in Nashik. A team was sent to his location,” said Mohite.
“However, after sometime, his location suggested that he was in Mumbai… but we asked the team in Nashik to stay put. As soon as he returned to his residence on Thursday, he was caught and brought to the police station for inquiry,” he added. Sapkal confessed to the crime immediately, said the officer.
The police said they have recovered fake identity cards, duplicate rubber stamps of several commissionerate and sub-division offices and NIA uniforms from Sapkal’s residence.
The police learnt that Sapkal’s had been arrested previously for duping a man of Rs 9 lakh in Nashik on the pretext of getting him a role in a movie. Recently, he was arrested along with a woman for posing as police officers and fining people in Pune for not wearing masks.
“Another case of rape is registered against him in Nashik. Also, he is wanted in a cheating case in Jalna,” said Mohite.
Sapkal was produced in court, which remanded him to police custody till November 24.