Mumbai: In order to protect the public from anti-social elements who create problems in some form or the other the Thane Police Crime Branch has taken a lot of efforts to apprehend such persons. In one such incident a man who has previously worked as an art director in the film industry had been cheating people by promising them to get their children roles in television commercials. In this manner he had swindled a lot of money from a number of people. Around 17 cases has been registered against the accused across the state and the suspicion of the police is that he has cheated around 150 people. The Crime Branch Unit 5 officials on receiving an application from Ravindra Kulkarni, a Dombivli resident last week initiated an active investigation process into the matter. Police Inspector Mr. J. Ranaware, Crime Branch Unit 5, said that Mr. Kulkarni said that my son has already acted in three Marathi serials and this man approached me and told me that he was in a position to get my son better paying roles in television commercials. For this purpose he asked me an amount of Rs.11, 000/- telling me that he needed the money to get a proper portfolio made but in the end he never got back to me again. The police apprehended the accused by using technical and human intelligence. They spotted him at Ghodbunder Road from where he was picked up on Tuesday. The police found out that he would give different names to different people, and over the years been known as Sandeep Vharamble, Sandeep Mahajan, Sandeep Patil or simply ‘Sandy’. Mr. J. Ranaware said that the man had already worked in the film industry as an art director and he was aware that a lot of people often put efforts to get roles for their children. Using this as the core opportunity he started the racket in 2014. In connection with this racket he would contact institutes that teach acting to aspiring child artistes and take contact numbers of the artistes or their parents from them, after which he would contact the parents using the name of the institutes as a reference. As the police were checking about his history in the police records they so far found cases registered against the accused Sandy in various police stations in Kolhapur, Ratnagiri City, Ratnagiri Rural, Pune City, Navi Mumbai and Goa police commissionerates. Mr. Ranaware said from our investigation we have found victims who have collectively been cheated of Rs. 4.5 lakh so far by the accused and we expect the number to rise in the coming days. Based on what seems to be the truth when first seen or heard the accused is suspected to have cheated around 150 people of over Rs15 lakh since he has been active.]]>
