A Pune-based industrialist Wednesday lodged an FIR against a woman, her ‘husband’, and two accomplices, all from Satara, for allegedly cheating him and his partner of Rs 14.49 crore on the pretext of providing government tenders by posing as ‘national advisor’ to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
After the latest complaint lodged at the Satara city police station on November 20, the number of alleged scams committed by Kashmira Pawar has gone up as the police suspect Pawar and her aides have cheated more people.
Reacting to the latest complaint against Pawar, R B Maske, Inspector, Satara City police station, said, “Another FIR has been lodged against Kashmira and three others, all of whom are currently lodged in jail. We would again arrest them to probe their involvement in the new offence.”
The Pune-based industrialist has also named Pawar’s ‘husband’ Ganesh Gaikwad and two accomplices in the First Information Report. The complainant said in the FIR he met Pawar in 2017 after her interview appeared in media reports wherein she claimed she had been appointed the national advisor to the PMO. Pawar also allegedly told him she has direct contact with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
Pawar helped the businessman get back dues of about Rs 2 crore from a company, after which he started trusting her. Between 2021 and 2023, she allegedly accepted money and gold worth Rs 14,49,50,163 from the complainant and his partner by assuring them that she would provide them with government tenders for supplying material worth Rs 215 crore to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and grain worth Rs 197 crore to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Jammu and Kashmir.
The police said the complainant did not get any tender. After learning that Pawar was arrested by the Satara police in a cheating case last month, the Pune businessman lodged the FIR.
Pawar was arrested after the FIR was filed against her in Satara for allegedly cheating a Pune-based woman by promising to provide her tender for supplying uniforms for schools in Maharashtra. The woman alleged in her FIR that Pawar made her open a bank account for the business. But later the accused and her aides allegedly used the bank account for fraudulent transactions of nearly Rs 14.73 crore, the FIR stated.
In December 2022, a Satara-based hotelier Phillip Bhambal filed a police complaint stating Pawar and her associate were allegedly cheating people by falsely claiming she was a national advisor to the PMO. The Satara police lodged an FIR on January 4, 2023, against an unidentified person under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 170 (personating a public servant). They also filed an extortion FIR against Bhambal and others on January 10, 2023, based on a complaint from Pawar.
Claiming the FIR to be false, Bhambal approached the Bombay High Court seeking directions to transfer the probe to CID or CBI.
Meanwhile, a separate FIR was lodged against Pawar and Ganesh Gaikwad at the Bundgarden police station in Pune city on June 17, 2024, for allegedly cheating a Pune-based businessman Gorakh Maral of Rs 50 lakh on false assurances to get him a tender for government work.
Two days later, the Satara police arrested Pawar and Gaikwad in connection with the FIR lodged by Bhambal in January 2023. However, both were released on bail by a court in Satara the next day, but arrested again last month.
In July, the Bombay High Court raised doubts about the investigation by the Satara police and directed the superintendent of police to monitor the probe.
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