Bhadrakali Police officials in Nashik City have registered a case against a Thane-based AI firm director for forging official documents and the digital signature of the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela commissioner to obtain fraudulent contracts worth nearly Rs 4 crore.
According to the Inspector Vasant Pawar, Abhishek Sanjay Zare, the director of Innovative Intelligence AI Automation Solutions Agency, had already been arrested by the Nashik Road Police in a related case involving forged work orders worth Rs 35 crore.
"Today we have arrested him in the case registered at the Bhadrakali Police Station."
The case was registered by the authorities of the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority.
Zare is alleged to have forged letterheads and digital signatures of the commissioner of the Authority. He then created two work orders worth nearly Rs 4 crore.
When the investigation into Nashik Road case was ongoing, an examination of Zare's cell phone revealed forged documents which included a three-page order worth Rs 2.2 crore for the deployment of 300 traffic wardens.
There was another nine-page order worth Rs 1.7 crore involving the handover and renovation of the Trimbakeshwar sub-district hospital.
These documents were created using fake letterheads, e-office numbers and fake official seals to appear as if they were legitimate administrative approvals for high-value projects by the NTKMA commissioner, said Assistant Inspector Vasant Pawar of the Bhadrakali Police station.
Accordingly, a complaint was filed by the Kumbh Mela Authority officials. The police have charged BNS sections 318(1) (cheating), 336(2) (forgery of electronic records), 336(3) (forgery of valuable securities), and 338 (use of forged documents as genuine).
The police added that the latest case is linked to a broader fraud uncovered earlier, where Zare allegedly attempted to cheat the authority using fake CCTV and AI surveillance work orders worth Rs 35 crore, as flagged by Kumbh Mela Authority chairman Praveen Gedam.
Officials said the modus operandi points to a systematic attempt to exploit large-scale infrastructure preparations for the 2027 Simhastha Kumbh Mela.
"Further investigations are going on to see if there are any accomplices and unearth the full extent of the fraud," Pawar told THE WEEK.