Man impersonates actor on social media, cheats woman

A 25-year-old man from Pune's Pimpri Chinchwad area was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly duping a woman from the city to the tune of Rs 1.04 lakh after posing as a Marathi actor, police said. Ahmednagar police identified the accused as Shivtej Chavan, a resident of Pimpri in Pune district. Chavan had created a fake social media profile in the name of actor Akash Thosar, said a police official.

"He posed as Thosar, and was communicating with the woman through the fake social media account between October last year and January. He told her that his father was not well and he badly needed money for treatment," the officer said.

The woman, who is 27 years old, said she had no cash but offered him her gold jewelery worth Rs 1.4 lakh. "The accused then traveled to Ahmednagar from Pune, posing as the actor's friend and collected the jewelery from her," said the official.

Later he stopped communicating with the woman. Realisng that she had been cheated, she approached police, after which Chavan was arrested. Further probe is on.