A Mumbai woman and her three accomplices have been booked for allegedly cheating her husband of ₹1.73 crore. The Bhandup police registered a case against Poonam Rode and her associates Sachin Yelavi, Suhas Pawar, and Kishor Pawar based on a complaint filed by her husband, Vishal Ashok Rode.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), Poonam allegedly defrauded Vishal over seven years under the guise of securing a loan for him and threatening him with a false police case. In September 2019, Poonam introduced Vishal to Sachin Yelavi and Suhas Pawar, portraying them as businessmen who could assist him in obtaining a loan. She later claimed that a businessman named Mhatre, acquainted with Suhas Pawar, could provide him with a ₹3 crore loan through a firm. Under pressure, Vishal paid ₹6.92 lakh to Yelavi as processing fees, but the loan never materialized.

The situation escalated when a woman named Varsha Salunkhe, allegedly working in Suhas Pawar's office, initiated WhatsApp chats with Vishal and exchanged explicit photos with him. Subsequently, Vishal was threatened with police complaints, with the accused demanding money to settle the matter.

Further, the accused allegedly coerced Vishal into taking a loan with prepaid EMIs worth ₹18 lakh from an individual named Shaikh and extracted an additional ₹20.37 lakh for purported municipal documentation fees. They also claimed that Suhas Pawar's ₹9 crore was seized by the Crime Branch in a chit fund scam, extorting another ₹2 lakh from Vishal to "help recover the funds". Pawar and Yelavi allegedly told Rode that they had used ₹1.20 crore out of the recovered funds to make a "One Time Settlement" on his housing loan. When Rode questioned this, he was threatened with fake legal cases. He was shown fabricated invoices bearing his PAN details, with headers like "PAY-E COURT," and was forced to send money to multiple bank accounts via OTPs he received, totaling ₹34.02 lakh between June 9, 2023, and June 13, 2025. Yelavi also sent case numbers via WhatsApp, claiming cyber complaints had been filed by lenders against Rode.

In April 2025, Vishal began receiving calls from unknown numbers. Yelavi informed him that PSI Kishor Pawar from Vartak Estate Police Station was preparing to arrest him in connection with another suicide case involving Varsha's husband and daughter. Under this threat, he paid an additional ₹7.79 lakh.

Vishal, who joined TCS in August 2021, alleged that his wife, Poonam, forcibly transferred ₹2.20 lakh monthly from his salary account to her own, totaling ₹82.23 lakh since July 2022. She, along with Yelavi and Pawar, also forced him to sign documents under duress.

Following these events, Vishal approached the Bhandup police and filed a complaint against Poonam Rode, Sachin Yelavi, Suhas Pawar, and Kishor Pawar, accusing them of criminal intimidation, blackmail, cheating, and financial fraud amounting to ₹1.73 crore. Based on his complaint, the Bhandup police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and initiated an investigation.