There is a surprising twist in the case of two men who were arrested from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event venue in Mumbai on Monday night.
Rohan Parikh, who was arrested with a fake PMO ID, has claimed that he was a victim of a scam and was duped into believing that he had a job with the PMO.
24-year-old Rohan Parikh and his bodyguard Dilip Kunde were arrested from a shopping mall in Bandra Kurla Complex near the venue of the Prime Minister’s event at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC).
While Parikh had a fake PMO ID card, Kunde was carrying a gun.
The arrests had led to a security alert ahead of the Prime Minister’s event on Tuesday evening.
The two men were produced in court on Tuesday and sent to police custody till September 11.
But in an interesting twist, Parikh’s lawyer claimed in court that the 24-year-old student, who had recently returned from London, was himself the victim of an elaborate scam and had been duped into believing he was a legitimate PMO appointee.
Arguing against the custody plea, Parikh’s advocate submitted that he had been framed and told the court that an individual named Tarun Kapoor (or Gupta) had offered Parikh an advisory role in December 2024, sending him an offer letter alongside a photo of a PMO identity card.
Parikh never received a physical copy of the identity card, the advocate said.
The lawyer said Parikh was instructed by the scammer to hire a personal bodyguard, leading him to engage Kunde, and on the day of the incident, Parikh had visited the mall merely to buy perfume and personal items, extending full cooperation to the security guards and later to the police.
Parikh was stopped at the Jio World Plaza by security guards who objected to his bodyguard carrying the gun into the mall. After an argument, Parikh displayed a digital photograph on his mobile phone of an identity card claiming he was a PMO official.
The security guards became suspicious of Parikh’s claim and alerted the police.
However, police clarified later that the incident had no connection to the Prime Minister’s scheduled inauguration of the Global Fintech Fest 2026 event.
Producing the duo before the court on Tuesday, police sought their custody to investigate where they procured the forged PMO credential and to locate a third accused, identified as Prathamesh Bagul (26), who is on the run.
The defence lawyer submitted that Parikh was a student who had recently returned from London, and the duo’s visit to the mall was entirely private, reiterating that it had no link to the Prime Minister’s schedule.
The magistrate remanded both accused to police custody till September 11 for further probe.
(With Agency Inputs)
