MUMBAI, July 30 -- An office-bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jalgaon has emerged as the prime accused in a bizarre case involving the impersonation of BJP MLC Prasad Lad to fraudulently transfer Rs.3.6 crore from his local area development fund. The accused, 29-year-old Amit Solunke, allegedly forged official documents, duplicated Lad's signature and even used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to mimic his voice in an attempt to move the funds from Ratnagiri-Lad's nodal district in the Konkan region-to Beed in Marathwada. The case came to light on July 2 when Lad filed a complaint at the Sion police station, stating that someone had impersonated him and initiated a fake request to divert the funds. The Maharashtra Legislative Council chairman subsequently directed the state government to investigate the matter seriously. Police have booked Solunke and three others-Prashant Lande, Nilesh Waghmode and Sachin Bankar-under sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 336 (forgery) and 340 (using forged documents or electronic records as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. However, investigators later learned that the three co-accused were, in fact, victims of the scam. "They had approached Solunke seeking funds for development works in Beed. Solunke claimed he could arrange the money from MLC Lad's fund and demanded a 10% commission-Rs.36 lakh-for facilitating the transfer," said a senior police officer. To execute the plan, Solunke allegedly posed as Lad in phone calls with officials and submitted forged documents on a fake MLC letterhead. But before the funds could be disbursed, discrepancies were noticed and the matter was reported. On Monday, a Mumbai sessions court granted him anticipatory bail, noting that the forgery appeared to be an attempt rather than a completed act of cheating. Additional sessions judge Dr Gauri Kawdikar directed Solunke to cooperate with the investigation and report to the police regularly. "The court observed that since no actual transfer of funds occurred and the punishment for the alleged offences is under seven years, the case is triable by a magistrate's court. The other accused had already been granted anticipatory bail," the officer said. "This was a serious offence wherein someone used my voice generated by AI, misused my letterhead and documents, and also cheated the government," Lad said. "The mastermind must be booked-whoever he is. After my case came to light, many such complaints have surfaced. The government must use technology to avoid such frauds." Police confirmed that Solunke is associated with the BJP Yuva Morcha in Jalgaon....