Diamond trader who posed as PA of Ajoy Mehta arrested
The accused, Aditya Ashok Jogani aka Ajay Dave, had in the past impersonated several people, including additional chief secretary Pravinsingh Pardeshi. The FIR was registered yesterday on a complaint by Santosh Bendre, 50, a resident of Santacruz who has been doing “liaison work” since 2010, the EOW officer said
MUMBAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested a 44-year-old diamond trader from Nepean Sea Road for allegedly posing as the personal secretary of former state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta and cheating a Santacruz-based “businessman” of ₹3.90 crore by promising to get his work done.
The accused, Aditya Ashok Jogani aka Ajay Dave, had in the past impersonated several people, including additional chief secretary Pravinsingh Pardeshi. The FIR was registered yesterday on a complaint by Santosh Bendre, 50, a resident of Santacruz who has been doing “liaison work” since 2010, the EOW officer said.
According to the police, Bendre first spoke to the accused in 2018 after Hotel Bayroute in Cuffe Parade, for which he was liaising, received a call from Dave. Claiming to be the personal secretary of Ajoy Mehta, Dave had told the hotel to take proper care of six guests he was going to send there and to not charge them any money.
The hotel asked Bendre to verify the authenticity of the caller. “When Bendre called him, the accused repeated that he was Ajay Dave, personal secretary to the then civic chief,” said the police officer. “Later, they started speaking often, and Dave would boast about his close contacts with ministers and BJP leaders in Delhi.”
After several phone conversations, Bendre asked Dave to meet him. “When he arrived at the meeting place, he was surprised to see a septuagenarian who introduced himself as Dave and said that he also worked as an undercover agent,” said a police officer. It was only in 2023 that he discovered that the senior citizen was not Dave but someone whom Dave had asked to impersonate him, after which he lodged a police complaint on Wednesday.
After their initial meeting, Bendre decided to team up with Dave and use the latter’s contacts to get his work done. Dave subsequently told him that he was mostly in Delhi but his work in Mumbai was being handled by one Aditya Jogani, who would stay in touch with him. Later, he would speak to Bendre over the phone sometimes as Dave and sometimes as Jogani.
“When they worked together, Dave used various pretexts to squeeze money out of Bendre,” said a police officer. “He pretended he was using his political contacts to get Bendre’s work done like getting an accused out of an EOW case, supplying machines to AIIMS in Delhi, and facilitating admissions to schools and colleges. He got four vehicles in Bendre’s name when the latter was unable to get this done, and asked Bendre to donate money to the party fund in return. He even said that he had got a BMC official, who had approached Bendre for a transfer, get what he wanted. None of this was done, but he extracted about ₹3.93 crore from Bendre or people associated with him,” said a police officer.
“Jogani already has around 15 cases registered against him but has secured anticipatory bail in most,” said the officer. “After the complainant approached us, we registered a case under several sections of the IPC pertaining to impersonating a public servant and cheating. We arrested him on Wednesday from the Bharat Diamond Bourse and are questioning him.”
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