Kalachowkie police arrested Suraj Kalav on Tuesday and registered four cheating cases against him

MUMBAI: A conman claiming to be the personal assistant to an MP has cheated SoBo restaurant Bademiya’s owner Jamal Shaikh of Rs 11 lakh by promising his daughter admission to the Government Law College (GLC). The cheating included not paying for food ordered for what the conman claimed were hundreds of the MP’s party workers.
Kalachowkie police on Tuesday evening arrested Suraj Kalav and registered four cheating cases against him.This included for impersonating a public servant and criminal breach of trust. Police have ruled out any politician’s involvement in the case.
According to Shaikh’s complaint, he had received a call on July 2 from Suraj, who introduced himself as the personal assistant to an MP and placed an order for food for 200 party workers as part of a celebration for winning the Lok Sabha election. He placed an order for 200 gulab jamuns and vegetarian and non-vegetarian biryani for the party workers. Additionally, he requested vegetarian and non-vegetarian food for 40 people to be delivered to one Akhilesh in Currey Road. The total bill was around Rs 2 lakh, police said.
Suraj had placed orders with the restaurant in the past too but had paid, police said.
Suraj who boasted of connections with politicians, promised Shaikh’s daughter admission to GLC and collected Rs 9.27 lakh in exchange.
Shaikh’s daughter, who was studying law at a private college in Bandra, wanted admission to GLC in Churchgate which was close to her residence. Suraj assured him that he would discuss the matter with his bosses and make it happen, police said.
In the last week of July, Suraj called Shaikh and informed him that he would need to pay a donation for the admission, to which Shaikh agreed. “Initially, on the pretext of paying college fees, he collected Rs 49,000. Later, he collected Rs 3 lakh allegedly to pay for donations, extra fees, registration, etc and Rs 5 lakh for the trustees. In all, he took Rs 9.27 lakh and cheated him.”
A police officer said, “The crime branch arrested him. We will take his custody and produce him in the court Wednesday. We will investigate what he did with the food.”