“Considering the manner in which, the investigation is progressing, we deem it appropriate to direct the Superintendent of Police of Satara, to remain present on the next date. Stand over to 11th July, 2024…,” the HC order stated.

The petitioner Phillip Bhambal, from Satara, had in December 2022 filed a complaint application against Kashmira Pawar and her associate Ganesh Gaikwad that they were cheating people by claiming she was a national advisor to the PMO. Based on an inquiry into this complaint, an FIR was lodged at the Satara city police station on January 4, 2023 against an “unidentified person” as per IPC section 170 (personating a public servant). The said FIR was filed by a policeman Rahul Ghadge.

Then, on January 10, 2023, following Kashmira’s complaint, the Satara police lodged an FIR of extortion against Bhambal, Gorakh Maral and one more person for allegedly demanding Rs 50 lakh and forcibly taking Rs 50,000 from her following a financial dispute between them.

Bhambal said, “While I was the complainant, the FIR was lodged by policeman Ghadge and that too against (an) unknown person. I found the role of Satara police suspicious and moved a criminal writ petition before the Bombay HC praying that the investigation of this case be transferred to CID or CBI.”

Meanwhile, police added IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (documents or electronic records forged) and 471 (fraudulent use of forged documents) to the FIR. One and a half years after the FIR was lodged, the Satara police arrested Kashmira and Ganesh, both residents of Satara city, for their alleged involvement in the offence on June 19, 2024. However, the next day itself, both accused were released on bail by a court in Satara.

Their arrest had also taken place just two days after a separate FIR was lodged against them at Bundgarden police station in Pune city on June 17, under IPC sections 419, 420, 34, for allegedly cheating a Pune based businessman Gorakh Maral (49) of Rs 50 lakh.

Maral alleged that Kashmira and Ganesh assured him of a tender for some government work under her claim of being a national advisor to the PMO. According to Maral, Kashmira allegedly took Rs 50 lakh, some in cash and the remaining online, from him between December 2019 and March 2022. They however did not help him win the bid for any government work.

Maral said the accused had shared a letter dated November 20, 2019 with him on WhatsApp, bearing the “signature” of PM Modi. “The letter mentions Kashmira’s appointment as National Advisor to the PM and Counsellor of India,” he said.

Meanwhile, the hearings on the petition filed by Bhambal were underway before the Bombay HC. An order passed by the HC on May 9, 2024 stated, “The allegations made in the petition are serious and hence, we direct the Superintendent of Police, Satara City, to look into the same and take appropriate steps thereafter.”

Bhambal said that at the next case hearing on July 3, his lawyer Sagar Tilak told the HC how the couple was arrested after an FIR was lodged against them in Pune and also released on bail the next day.

The HC then directed the Superintendent of Satara police to appear before it during the next hearing on July 11.
Satara police have received three complaints from persons who were allegedly cheated to the tune of Rs 82 lakh by the accused Kashmira and Ganesh. Police were probing the bank accounts of the accused persons.

Bhambal had also lodged an FIR against Kashmira and Ganesh on September 9, 2020 under IPC sections 380 (theft in dwelling), 427 (mischief thereby causing losses), 454 (trespassing or housebreak), 457 (trespassing or housebreak), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 34 (common intention) over a dispute between them on payment of hotel rent. He claimed to he rented his hotel to the accused since he knew them for many years.

Additional sessions judge K P Nandedkar in Pune granted anticipatory bail to Kashmira and Ganesh in the Bundgarden police station case on June 28. The court observed that Maral might have lodged the FIR against Kashmira and Ganesh as a “counter blast to the allegations made by the accused” against him in the extortion FIR at Satara.

Kashmira’s lawyer Prasad Nikam said, “While the FIR was lodged in June, Gorakh Maral had filed a complaint application against Kashmira and Ganesh at the Bundgarden police station in August 2023. Since then police called them (Kashmira and Ganesh) for investigation three times and they have co-operated every time. The court has observed that delay caused in lodging the FIR was not properly explained.”

The court directed Kashmir and Ganesh to appear at the police station on the 5th of every month until the charge sheet is filed. Both appeared before Bundgarden police station on Friday, said advocate Nikam.

In December 2017, the media had reported about Kashmira’s “appointment” as national advisor to the PMO. But Kashmira’s statement in the extortion FIR filed against Maral in January 2023 makes no mention of her “PMO appointment”. It says that she has a Master’s degree in Sociology. Her statement also mentions that a project on the Centre’s “Make In India” and “Rural Development Project” done by her, along with other students and teachers while she was at Satara’s Chhatrapati Shivaji College around 2014-15, bagged the first prize in 2016.