Vinit Dave (img: File)

Lately, Gujarat has been plagued with imposters, pretending to be officials of the state and the state-run entities. Exploiting benefits, these fake officials are tarnishing the image of the state.

After fake personal assistants, commodities, offices, officials, and even toll booths were unravelled in the state over the last few months, now a fake deputy superintendent of police (DySP) has been nabbed from Junagadh.

The local crime branch (LCB) has nabbed a driver working in Junagadh family court for posing as a DySP and duping multiple people.

Vinit Dave, an Ahmedabad native, had also created a fake ID card for his bogus position and duped people by falsely claiming to procure them jobs in return for hefty amounts, state reports.

He scammed 17 such youngsters in and around Saurashtra for a total amount of a whopping ₹2.11 cr.

His fraud saga

As per Junagadh superintendent of police (SP), Harshad Mehta, 37-year-old Dave has worked as a driver at the family court in Junagadh since 2018.

For the past year or so, Dave used to contact and portray himself as a top official with influential contacts in front of youngsters and their parents. This ploy fetched him significant money from them over the false pretence of getting them jobs.

As soon as his identity was revealed, many knocked the legal doors too. Following which an inquiry was launched against him, informed police sources After this, Dave fled to Ahmedabad.

Major details revealed

The LCB learned of his latest location at Junagadh’s MG road, and the team, led by LCB police inspector (PI) JJ Patel, reached the scene and nabbed the accused, informed SP Mehta.

Patel and his team then brought the accused to the LCB office, where he was thoroughly interrogated.

On searching him, the authorities got hold of a fake DySP card, his Aadhaar card, the family court’s I-card, a fraudulent colour photocopy of the i-card bearing the name of a senior civil judge from Junagadh, the vehicle’s registration certificate (RC) book, ₹120 in cash, and his mobile phone.

Photos of two other ID cards of Patan district police officers, Ajitsinh and Kansinh Rajput, were also found on his phone. A probe has also been launched into this matter.

The Junagadh A division police officer has registered a complaint against Dave under IPC sections 406, 465, 468, 471, and 170.

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