Pune police arrest Assam Rifle deserter who posed as Army officer at Southern Command
Officers said the Military Intelligence team found that Prashant Patil purchased two Indian Army Subedar uniforms from a shop, but did not pay the bill. He was also allegedly in possession of a fake Army ID card.
The police identified the accused as Prashant Bhaurao Patil, 32, a native of Karnataka, who currently resides in Pune city’s Chikhali area.
It was quite intriguing to see a headline : PUNE POLICE ARREST ARMY DESRTER BASED ON INFORMATION FROM ARMY.
Why would Army do such kind of a thing ? In case of an Army deserter, the Army has the legal powers to arrest such a person and keep him under Military custody for questioning and subsequent Court Martial. Such a person is handed over to the civil police only if the Military Court awards a prison sentence. The individual will be sent to Civil prison to serve the sentence.
On further reading it turned out that the imposter had been serving with Assam Rifles from where he had fled from duty in 2019. The Army could have still arrested him as a suspected Military desrter ( as he was posing as an Army personnel in Uniform ) and after confirming that he was ex Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force, handed him over to the police.
Instead they liased with the Civil administration and the Pune city police, based on information received from the Southern Command’s Military Intelligence (MI), arrested the man for posing as an Army officer.
The police identified the accused as Prashant Bhaurao Patil, 32, a native of Karnataka, who currently resides in Pune city’s Chikhali area. The first information report (FIR) in this connection was lodged at Bundgarden police station early on Monday.
Officers said the MI team from Pune had found that Patil purchased two Indian Army Subedar uniforms from a shop in Khadki, but did not pay the bill amounting to Rs 4,700. It was also found that the accused claimed to be currently deployed at the Southern Command, Pune and was allegedly in possession of a fake ID card with his photograph in Army uniform and the address of Southern Command.
The MI filed a complaint with the Pune city police against him, following which he was arrested. The police said he also procured a fake Aadhar Card.
According to officials, the accused was posted with the Assam Rifles, but he fled in 2019. Later, he was named in multiple criminal offences in connection with forgery and cheating a woman by posing as Army personnel on a matrimonial website. He was also arrested by the Ahmednagar police, but was released on bail.
