Fake IPS Officer Arrested For Cheating Aspirants In Central Excise Job Racket
MUMBAI: For more than two years, a Mumbai businessman waited for a government appointment that never came—while the men who promised it invoked official titles, staged medical tests, and produced forged paperwork that looked convincingly real.
A Promise That Traveled Through Familiar Channels
The case began not with an anonymous phone call or an online advertisement, but through a personal introduction. Prakash Narendra Udeshi, a real estate businessman from Dahisar, had known Sachin Krishna Sawant for several years. According to the police complaint, Sawant presented himself as someone with access—someone who had traveled to Delhi, arranged government jobs in the past, and could now do the same for Udeshi’s son.
Sawant introduced another figure into the story: Nilesh Kashiram Rathod, whom he described as a Delhi-based Indian Police Service officer with connections in the Union Home Ministry. Rathod, the complaint says, claimed he could secure a constable’s post in the Central Excise Department. The job would not be free. A fixed sum would be charged, with a promise that the money would be returned with interest if the appointment did not materialize.
Skeptical at first, Udeshi was persuaded by the assurances—and by a meeting that followed at the ITC Grand Maratha Hotel in Santacruz. Rathod arrived accompanied by Karan Singhania, another associate later named in the police investigation. Forms were filled out. Procedures were explained. The price was set at a minimum of ₹10 lakh.
Money Paid, Paperwork Delivered
Over the following weeks, Udeshi paid ₹8 lakh in installments to Rathod and Singhania, according to investigators. Soon after, his son was sent to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital for a medical examination—an event that appeared to lend official legitimacy to the process.
The accused allegedly told the family that the formalities were complete and that the appointment would be in Odisha. In late November 2023, Rathod asked Udeshi to bring his son to the state, where several other young men, also seeking government jobs, had gathered. The joining date, Rathod said, would be in December. Father and son returned to Mumbai to wait. December passed. So did the months that followed.
In November 2024—nearly two years after the initial payment—Rathod allegedly produced a copy of what he claimed was a movement order and demanded the remaining ₹2 lakh. Udeshi refused, insisting that no further payment would be made until his son was actually appointed. The calls continued, police say, but the money did not move.
Doubts, Discovery, and a Police Complaint
When neither the job nor a refund materialized, Udeshi demanded the return of the ₹8 lakh he had already paid. That money, too, did not come back. Only then, according to the complaint, did he begin to verify the documents he had been shown. The paperwork, he discovered, was fake.
After confirming that no such appointment existed, Udeshi lodged a formal complaint with Mumbai’s MHB Police. Following verification, the police registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against Rathod, Sawant, and Singhania.
Investigators say the pattern suggested something larger than a single dispute: a method that relied on personal networks, staged bureaucratic rituals, and the appearance of insider access to extract money from job aspirants.
Arrests, Associates, and a Wider Inquiry
After registering the offence, the police launched a search operation and arrested Rathod, who was taken into custody and produced before a court. He has since been remanded to police custody. During interrogation, police say, Rathod admitted to committing the fraud with the help of Sawant and Singhania. Both associates have been declared wanted.
According to investigators, Rathod had posed as an IPS officer based in Delhi and was allegedly involved in multiple cheating cases involving promises of government employment. The police are now working to determine how many people were defrauded through similar assurances and how much money the group collected in total.
