THANE: A 55-year-old BJP MLA from Chandgad in Kolhapur, Shivaji Patil, who had rushed to the police last week claiming that a woman was trying to extort him with threats of leaking “obscene” chats and videos, got a shocker — the “woman” turned out to be a 26-year-old jobless man with a knack for mimicking female voices.
The Chitalsar police in Thane have arrested Mohan Jyotiba Pawar, an unemployed youth from Chandgad, for allegedly trying to honeytrap the MLA and demand ₹5–10 lakh in exchange for keeping the fabricated material under wraps.
Patil, who divides his time between Thane and his Kolhapur constituency, had lodged a complaint at Chitalsar police station on October 9 against an “unknown woman” who was threatening him with exposure. But the police cyber team soon discovered that the supposed seductress was, in fact, a desperate young man from a farmer’s family who had recently finished his BSc exams and had been unemployed for six months.
Using the MLA’s call records, phone data and the bank account details he had shared for the extortion transfer, investigators traced Pawar to Chandgad. He was called to a local police station for questioning, where he reportedly confessed to orchestrating the scam. He has been booked under section 308(3) (extortion) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 67 (publication or transmission of obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. A court has remanded him to police custody till October 15.
Senior police inspector Sunil Warode said Pawar had first met Patil six months ago when he visited the MLA’s office seeking a job but was turned away. Short of cash — he decided to hatch the sextortion plan.
Interestingly, police said Pawar had earlier worked as a waiter at a Lonavala hotel, where he amused his colleagues by imitating women’s voices — a talent that later became the cornerstone of his ill-fated con.