Cops nabbed Ram Rao Patil at Colaba after he evaded them for 20 days
Cops nabbed Ram Rao Patil at Colaba after he evaded them for 20 days
After a 20-day cat-and-mouse chase, the Nashik police finally nabbed Ram Rao Patil, the builder who filed a complaint against Buta Singh's son Sarabjot Singh alias Sweety, at Colaba yesterday.
Though the Nashik-based builder is wanted by the police in a Rs 10 crore scam and an atrocities case, he was handed over to the CBI for questioning in the Singh bribery case.
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Subhash Thorat, assistant commissioner of police from Nashik, said, "We caught him at Cuffe Parade and were going to take him to Nashik, but the CBI had to question him in the bribery case.
An atrocities case was filed against Patil on July 11 by a group of Dalit workers from Nashik (see box). He disappeared from the city before he could be arrested and continued to give the police the slip.
False promises
Patil kept assuring the Nashik police that he would appear before them, but never showed up. However, during this period he met CBI officials and helped them set a trap to arrest Sarabjot, informed officials.
Said Thorat, "Patil did all this when he was wanted by us. He never had the intention to surrender and hence, on Saturday also filed an anticipatory bail application."
The scam
The case filed against Patil on July 11 is related to a Rs 10 crore loan he had taken in 2006 from Chandrakant Haribade Cooperative Society in Navi Mumbai in the name of a group of scheduled caste workers.
Patil had allegedly obtained their signatures by promising them jobs in civic agencies.
He then submitted the forms and obtained the loan. He even paid several installments. However, the workers came to know about Patil's actions only last month, when they were served a notice for non-payment of loans.
Buta Singh visited Nashik on July 10 to look into the matter. Following his instructions, the workers filed a complaint with the police.
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