The Crime Branch of Pune on Wednesday raided Sunil Jayant Pawar’s house at Katraj for sending a forged letter to the cops. Forged letterheads and rubber stamps of the chief minister, deputy chief minister and other ministers and MLAs, including state Energy Minister Dilip Walse Patil and MLA Vilas Lande were seized. Police also got their hands on a dairy in which Sunil appears to have practised forging the signatures, some envelopes of government offices, letterheads of the Mantralaya and a letterhead of late minister Vasantrao Chavan.

What set the police on his trail was a letter received on October 27 at the police commissionerate with the CM and DCM's forged signatures. The letter stated that one Kamrunissa Shaikh belonging to Social Forum of Minorities had named two residents of upper Indira Nagar, Anil Kamble and Tukaram Kamble (they were named as accomplices of a deceased criminal Robert Salve) as members of the banned SIMI. The letter asked for a probe against the two.

Crime Branch initiated investigations during which sub-inspector Y K Nalawade found the Kambles to be auto-rickshaw drivers. As for Kamrunisaa Shaikh, he was nowhere to be found. Smelling a rat, the crime branch made a sketch based on the description of the person who had handed over the letter. From the sketch, the Kamble brothers identified him as Sunil.

It came to light that settling a personal score was the motive. The Kambles told police that they had a fight with Pawar over a financial dispute. They told police that Sunil had taken a bank loan of Rs 90,000 for which Kamble's father, Narayan, a government employee, had stood guarantor. After Sunil failed to repay the loan and the money was being deducted from Narayan's account, the dispute began.

Investigations confirmed that it was Sunil who had indeed submitted the letter at the police commissionerate.

Sunil was reported to be a historysheeter with complaints of cheating registered against him at Panvel, Vishrambaug and Bharato Vidyapeeth police stations.