The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested Mr. Purushottam Chavan, husband of IPS officer Ms. Rashmi Karandikar, in connection with a major cheating case involving Rs. 24.78 crore. The case pertains to a long-running scam, allegedly executed between March 2015 and April 2024, in which Mr. Chavan and 11 others are accused of duping over 20 individuals under the guise of offering government quota flats at concessional rates.
According to EOW officials, Mr. Chavan promised flats in prime locations such as Mumbai, Thane, and Pune, claiming to use his government connections to facilitate the deals. Victims reportedly paid large sums for these non-existent properties, only to realise they had been defrauded.
Mr. Chavan, who was already in judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May last year for a Rs. 263 crore Income Tax Refund (ITR) fraud, has now been formally arrested by the EOW in the first of two FIRs registered against him.
In the second FIR, Mr. Chavan is accused of cheating a Surat-based businessman and others of Rs. 7.42 crore. He allegedly collected money on the pretext of offering government plots at discounted prices and promised to secure contracts for supplying T-shirts to the Maharashtra Police Academy in Nashik. These promises too were never honoured. Sources confirm that Gujarat Police had also arrested Mr. Chavan last month in a separate cheating case.
Meanwhile, EOW officers had earlier questioned his wife, Ms. Rashmi Karandikar, a serving IPS officer with the Maharashtra Police. She was questioned about Rs. 3 crore allegedly transferred to her ICICI Bank account from one belonging to her husband. However, EOW clarified that Ms. Karandikar has not been named an accused in the case so far.
Ms. Karandikar has reportedly distanced herself from her husband and filed for divorce, citing mental cruelty, financial harassment, incompatibility, concealment of financial transactions, and his bipolar disorder as grounds.
The investigation is ongoing, with more details expected to emerge as officials dig deeper into the alleged multi-crore fraud network.
