Two, including Afghan associate, held as probe widens into woman posing as IAS officer

PUne: deuce people, including an afghanistani link up, were arrested from Pune in connectedness with the 45-year-old adult female held on November 23 for posing as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in Delhi.Mohammad Ashraf Khil, an Afghan national, and Abhishek Chaudhary, the man she had stored in her phone as “OSD to Home Minister”, were nabbed during coordinated raids by a special squad of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar police early Saturday, a police officer said.Both were produced before a Delhi court and placed on transit remand. They were brought to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for custodial interrogation on Saturday, senior officials said.Kalpana Trimbakrao Bhagwat, a former senior assistant at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (BAMU) in Maharashtra, was arrested for allegedly forging identity documents, fabricating an IAS appointment letter, and staying for nearly six months at a star hotel using a tampered Aadhaar card.On Wednesday, while seeking Bhagwat’s custody for 10 days, the police informed the court through a remand report, which HT has seen, that the pattern of communication, financial transfers into Bhagwat’s account and her travel history had raised “serious concerns” about possible foreign links.Following Bhagwat’s arrest, the city police deployed four special teams to Delhi, Noida, Haryana and Rajasthan to trace key members linked to Bhagwat’s alleged associates.Investigators suspect Bhagwat operated a wider network involving foreign nationals. They had earlier said she was in frequent touch with Islamabad-based Yama Ghalif, Khil’s brother, for the past seven years.Police said Khil and Chaudhary are expected to reveal fresh details to help understand the financial, digital and international links Bhagwat maintained while posing as an IAS officer.“Chaudhary, who Bhagwat allegedly projected as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Union Home Minister, was tracked down and arrested in Delhi. A separate team has been formed to probe whether he had ties with other foreign nationals and how he helped Bhagwat sustain her façade as a senior bureaucrat,” an officer from Sambhajinagar police said.The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has sought detailed information on Bhagwat’s educational records from her school in Vaijapur and her employment and dismissal history from BAMU.Officials said both the IB and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) are questioning her over suspected links with individuals in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. Police have written to telecom companies and internet service providers seeking complete logs of international calls from her devices.At the Kranti Chowk lock-up, where she is currently lodged, Bhagwat reportedly insisted on speaking to her mother. The request was denied.Police said her six-month stay at a star hotel was funded through her mother’s pension account and other unexplained sources. Officials believe she targeted several real estate developers in the city while posing as an IAS lobbyist.According to the police, Bhagwat received ₹32.6 lakh between January 1 and November 21 this year from “different individuals”.During searches, police seized forged IAS appointment papers, two cheques worth ₹19 crore and ₹6 lakh, and an alleged endorsement letter purportedly signed by former vice-chancellor S. N. Pathan.Investigators said Bhagwat remains “highly evasive” during questioning. Police declined to comment on the role of two men — Chetan Bhanushali, who issued a ₹19 crore cheque, and Nikhil Bhakre, who issued a ₹6 lakh cheque — both found in her hotel room.They also recovered her mobile phone, which contained 11 international contacts, including numbers saved as “Peshawar cantonment board”, “Afghan embassy” and “Zardari Sir wife”.The court remanded Bhagwat to police custody till December 5. Investigators will begin questioning Khil and Chaudhary after they arrive in Sambhajinagar on Saturday.