Pimpri-Chinchwad: A shocking case has come forward in Pune’s Bavdhan area, as a young woman’s nude and obscene photos created with the help of AI were circulated on social media. Police have arrested a young man from the Mumbai area regarding this. The victim is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student at a Pune-based college. All of this was done after the man met the woman through the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) game.

A 21-year-old woman, a resident of Bavdhan, has lodged a complaint at Bavdhan Police Station. Police have arrested Chirag Rajendra Thapa (21), a resident of Virar East, Mumbai. A case has been registered against him under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

According to Bavdhan Police, the accused and the victim became acquainted about a fortnight ago through the BGMI game. Professional gamers say that players can meet random people on BGMI and similar games through matchmaking, team lobbies, or voice chats. These games connect players from different regions for cooperative or competitive gameplay. In a similar way, the accused and the victim got connected.

Police further said that after a BGMI gaming session, the accused “slid into” the victim’s Snapchat and Instagram. They were talking on Instagram. However, around a week ago, the accused asked the victim out on a date and to be his girlfriend. She refused, citing that they had never met and she didn’t want a romantic relationship with the accused.

A police official told media “This angered the accused, and he created over 13 fake profiles in the victim’s name on Instagram. He started sending threats to the victim through them. As the victim didn’t budge, he made obscene and morphed nude photos of her with the help of AI and circulated them. He sent them to the victim’s family and friends. Not stopping there, he also went on to create similar images of her other lady friends, asking them to convince the victim to talk to him and accept his love proposal.”

The victim finally reached out to Bavdhan Police Station on Thursday. A case was registered. Through technical analysis and skilful investigation by the Detection Branch (DB) of Bavdhan Police Station, under the guidance of Senior Police Inspector Anil Vibhute, the accused’s location was identified. API Ambarish Deshmukh, PSI Bandu Marne, and Police Constables Arun Narale and Swapnil Sabale went to Karjat and arrested the accused, Thapa, from there.

Police said that they have secured three days of police custody of the accused. The investigation is ongoing, led by PI (Crime) Bhaskar Kadam.

Mumbai: In an interesting turn to an alleged fraud case, a real estate contractor who approached the Khar police against his partner became an accused himself and was arrested. Notably, the sessions court recently refused to even grant him bail, observing that the investigation has revealed that he, in fact, cheated 35 people with fake documents.

The court said that if the contractor, Syed Abi Ahmed, 53, is released, the “prosecution will suffer a lot”. Ahmed was arrested on August 25 on the direction of the Bombay High Court. As per the prosecution case, he had filed a complaint against Peer Mohammad Shaikh alias Babu and Babu’s sister Karima Mujid Shaikh alias Lady Don. It was claimed that in 2014, Ahmed bought a property spanning 2,860 sq ft in Santacruz from one Vijay Dhule by sale agreement which was notarised.

Claiming financial problems, Ahmed did not develop the property into a residential complex. On April 12, 2024, Babu approached him to develop the plot but by June wanted to break the partnership claiming losses. Ahmed claimed he returned Babu’s share of Rs1.60 crore collected from the 35 persons who had booked houses. In June that year, Babu gave up his rights on the flats in writing, with his role limited to constructing the building and handing it over to Ahmed.

In August 2024, Ahmed claimed Babu demanded more money which led to a dispute and also a scuffle, landing Ahmed in hospital for four months. Ahmed claimed that, in his absence, Babu sold flats on the first floor. The Khar police began investigating and found that the sale agreement of the alleged plot was forged. The probe revealed that the advocate whose name appeared as notary had passed away and his signature was forged. Besides, the investigating officer found that Ahmed had entered into an agreement with 35 persons.

The MoUs were allegedly attested by one Advocate Mustari, who denied signing the documents. Advocate for Babu, Tariq Khan, pointed out these findings while arguing for bail for Babu during the hearing on August 18. The court later ordered to implicate Ahmed, following which he was arrested. Ahmed sought bail, claiming that the documents were genuine. He also raised medical grounds for the bail, which the court refused, noting that “there is prima facie case” against him.

Mumbai: The special MCOCA court on Thursday sentenced two Thane residents to five years’ imprisonment for chain snatching and operating a crime syndicate in a November 2020 incident. The MCOCA court imposed a fine of Rs15.3 lakh on each of the accused.

The court found Zakir Irani, 39, guilty of chain snatching and heading a crime syndicate involved in such crimes, along with Sonu Ananta Jadhav, alias Raj, 28.

According to the prosecution, the complainant was on a morning walk toward Goal Garden, Malad (East), on November 9, 2020, at around 6am. At around 6.10am, a blue-coloured motor scooter approached from behind, and the pillion rider attempted to snatch a gold chain from his neck. The complainant resisted, but the pillion rider inflicted a blow with a helmet on his head, causing him to lose his balance. The rider then snatched the chain.

The complainant claimed that two passersby helped him get up, but the assailants threatened to kill him by running him over. The complainant chased them and tried to note the bike’s license plate number, but two digits were missing. He later lodged a complaint with Dindoshi police station. The police acted quickly and, based on a confidential tip, arrested Irani on the same day. A month later, Jadhav was also arrested.

Public prosecutor Jaysingh Desai contended that Irani had four prior cases and was out on bail when he attacked the complainant in this case. It was also noted that Jadhav was a co-accused in some of these cases. Desai argued that Irani headed the syndicate.

The prosecution stated, “It clearly reflects that in each and every case, Zakir is the ma in accused and there are certain other associates like Gulam Hussain with Zakir in three cases…. In all cases, the modus operandi is the same: the accused target the victim’s neck to snatch a gold chain or mangalsutra.”