Navi Mumbai: A serial offender, claiming to be a journalist, who was wanted by Ulwe police in an FIR of cheating and criminal breach of trust registered on Oct 7 was arrested by the police on Nov 12 by tracing him to a hotel in Lonavla.The arrested accused has been identified as Shailendra Devprabhakar Dwivedi, a resident of Khanda Colony, Panvel taluka. “There are several other criminal cases including extortion and Arms Act registered against him at different police stations across Navi Mumbai and Thane police commissionerates. Hence, considering the criminal background of the notorious accused Dwivedi, an application with a report has been submitted to police commissioner Milind Bharambe for seeking to invoke the stringent MCOCA against the arrested accused Dwivedi,” informed DCP (zone-2) Amit Kale.Kale said, “An FIR was registered at Ulwe police station on Oct 7 against the accused Dwivedi after a complaint was lodged by Vijay Jha (42), an incense sticks trader from Kalwa, Thane, and four other victims alleging that Dwivedi had accepted a total of Rs 19 lakh from them as initial payment for selling them flats at a cheaper price in a building on plot number 453 in sector-24, Ulwe by claiming that it will be constructed by his firm ‘Shree Guru Builders and Developers’. As per the FIR by complainant Jha, the accused Dwivedi had accepted from him an initial payment of Rs 15 lakh in April 2025 for selling him a 1BHK flat for Rs 50 lakh in his residential project at Ulwe. However, Dwivedi neither constructed the building on the said plot nor refunded Jha’s money and instead threatened him when he demanded to refund. Jha also stated in the FIR that he later learnt that Dwivedi had accepted part-payment from four other buyers identified as Salil Rajendra Wahikar (Rs 1.50 lakh), Rakesh Ramdas Lokhande (Rs 1 lakh), Aavish Akbar Khan (Rs 75,000) and Umar Mubeen Mulla (Rs 75,000). Upon learning about an FIR registered against him on Oct 7, Dwivedi had gone absconding. Thereafter, Dwivedi had been evading arrest by changing his locations across Maharashtra and had switched off his mobile. However, he kept posting false and misleading messages about police officers of Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate using Twitter and other social media with the aim of defaming the police force. Using technical expertise, Dwivedi was finally arrested from a hotel in Lonavala on Nov 12 past midnight. He has been remanded to police custody for four days.”Kale further informed, “In the past, multiple serious criminal cases have been registered against the accused Dwivedi. They include extortion, possession of weapons, obstruction of government work, causing serious injury using a weapon in a fight and inciting religious sentiments among others. In 2026, FIRs are registered against Dwivedi at Nerul, NRI coastal, Rabale MIDC and Kalwa police stations. In these cases too, he was wanted by the police. In 2023, FIRs are registered against him at Bhiwandi Taluka, Ganeshpuri (Thane Rural) and NRI Coastal police station. He was then arrested and later released on bail.
