Maharashtra: Deserter held in Ahmednagar for posing as Army officer

A 32-year-old Army deserter who was later sacked from the force was arrested in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar, some 250 kilometres from here, on Saturday afternoon for posing as a military officer, police said.

Prashant alias Parsharam Bhaurao Patil, a resident of Belgaum in neighbouring Karnataka, was held from Dattanagar MIDC area on a tip-off from a military intelligence unit in Jammu and Kashmir, Ahmednagar Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Singh said.

"Our probe has found he was a defaulter during his tenure in the Assam Rifles and deserted the force in 2014. He was then involved in multiple cases of stealing and forgery," another official said.

The police have recovered several fake army identity cards, CSD cards, dependent cards in the name of his mother and wife, Aadhaar and PAN cards, an Army stamp, as well as five mobile phones.

"Though he was sacked from the Army, he continued donning the uniform and moving around in a vehicle with an 'on Army duty' board," the official said.