Pune Camp: Supriya hotel owner Nagesh Shetty duped of Rs 4.73 lakh by imposter food inspector

Pune: Nagesh Anna Narayan Shetty – owner of Supriya hotel located on Moledina Road and within a few hundred metres distance from the Pune Police Commissioner office – has been duped of Rs 4.73 lakh by a 36-year-old man who faked his identity as an officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The suspect had pretended of receiving a complaint of food poisoning from a girl customer and later threatened Shetty of legal action in this matter. Cantonment police have appealed to all hotels, restaurants, bakery owners to contact police in case they had been contacted by the suspect.

The suspect has been identified as Rahul Kiran Sarate (36), a resident of Chembur in Mumbai. He has been arrested by Cantonment police. Police have recovered four mobile SIM cards which were used by the suspect to commit the crime and also seized cash amount of Rs 40 thousand and a LCD television set worth Rs 18 thousand purchased from the extorted amount.

Nagesh Anna (55), a resident of Radiant Paradise Society in Wanawadi has filed a complaint against the suspect. According to the police, Between November 21 to 24 last month, Sarate had called the complainant on his mobile phone. He faked his identity and told the complainant that he was an officer from the FSSAI. The suspect then told Shetty that he had received a complaint about food poisoning caused to a girl customer who had consumed food at their hotel. Sarate had threatened the Shetty with further legal action and demanded money to not go ahead with the case. Sarate then took Rs 4.73 lakh from Shetty from time to time.

When the complainant realised that he has been duped, he filed complaint with the Cantonment police station. Mobile location details and technical investigations into the case traced Sarate at Solapur.

Accordingly a trap was laid at Solapur and Sarate was nabbed by a team of Pune Police. Police Inspector Ashok Kadam, Kavidas Jambhle, Assistant Police Inspector Harish Shilamkar, police constables Mahesh Kadam, Mansoob Shaikh, Chakradhar Shirgire, Ganesh Koli and others were a part of this team.