Nagpur: Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s personal assistant (PA), Vinayak Kulkarni, was duped of ₹75,000 in a cyber fraud during the Nagpur Winter Session. Hackers misused the Facebook account of retired IAS officer Praveen Pardeshi to run a fake furniture sale scam. The fraud was uncovered after timely communication with Pardeshi.

Police reported that on December 22, Kulkarni, a Bandra resident, was dining with Alam Khan, an IT engineer, in Nagpur. Khan received a Facebook message from Pardeshi’s hacked account advertising furniture and electronics for ₹1.05 lakh, allegedly being sold by a CRPF assistant commandant.

Kulkarni later received a call from someone impersonating CRPF Assistant Commandant Santosh Kumar, who claimed the items were in a Bhiwandi godown. Persuaded, Kulkarni transferred ₹50,000 via UPI and another ₹25,000 for packaging expenses. When delivery was delayed, and Kumar became unreachable, Kulkarni contacted Pardeshi, who confirmed his account had been hacked.

Kulkarni filed a cybercrime complaint through the National Cyber Crime Portal and at Sadar Police Station in Nagpur. Pardeshi also lodged a separate complaint.