2 held with fake PMO ID in Mumbai, cops deny link to PM visit

Two individuals, Rohan Parikh (24) and Dilip Kunde (49), have been arrested for allegedly entering a Mumbai shopping mall with a firearm and a fake PMO identity card.

The incident took place at Jio World Plaza in BKC on Monday evening and has been clarified by police to have no link to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's event.

Police are investigating the source of the fake identity card and searching for a third accused, Prathamesh Bagul (26).

The accused were carrying a licensed weapon, but the license was only valid for Nashik Rural district, making its possession in Mumbai a violation of law.

Security guards at the mall became suspicious when Kunde was found with a firearm and one of the accused showed a photograph of a purported PMO identity card.

 

Two men were arrested in Mumbai and subsequently remanded to police custody till September 11 by a metropolitan magistrate's court on Tuesday for allegedly forcing their way into a luxury shopping mall in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) area while carrying a firearm and a fake Prime Minister's Office (PMO) identity card.

The arrests of Rohan Parikh (24) and Dilip Kunde (49) followed an incident on Monday evening at the Jio World Plaza, where security guards stopped the duo after discovering Kunde was carrying a firearm.

An argument ensued during which one of the accused displayed a digital photograph on his mobile phone of an identity card claiming he was a PMO official.

In a surprising turn during the court proceedings, defence lawyers claimed that Parikh, a 24-year-old student who 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 Anandini Fernandes submitted that her client 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.

Fernandes said that 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.

The security guards had become suspicious of the claim of Parikh and had alerted the police, who examined CCTV footage to identify the suspects' vehicle, which was registered in Parikh's name, and tracked them down.

Earlier, a senior police official had said that a man claiming to be a PMO official and his armed 'bodyguard' had been detained at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's event there on Tuesday evening.

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 remains absconding.

The police remand application said that while the firearm carried by the accused was licensed, the permit was valid only for Nashik Rural district, making its possession in Mumbai a violation of the law.

Defence lawyer Satish Maneshinde 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 in police custody till September 11 for further probe.