A central Mumbai based 66-year old businessman was duped to the tune of `60 lakh by two people on the pretext of providing him a loan of `10 crore from a bank. The accused took the money in advance for their service, but the victim never got the promised loan money. The victim has now approached the MRA Marg police and lodged an offence with them.
According to the police, businessman Mohammed Hussain Kamruddin Dharwala, a Byculla resident, had complained against two people Vimal Gandhi and Shirish Shah recently.
Police sources say, in his complaint Dharwala, who has his office at Hutatma Chowk, has stated that he wanted a huge loan for his business. Gandhi and Shah, whom he knew through some common acquaintance, had promised him that they could provide him a loan of `10 crore from a bank using their contacts. And for this and some other documentation work, they demanded `60 lakh in advance.
“Trusting the duo, Dharwala in the month of March this year had given `30 lakh cash and `30 lakh by cheque to them. But after the complainant did not get the loan money on time he realised that he had been cheated. He then approached us,” said Ashok Jagdale, senior inspector of MRA Marg police station.
Mr Jagdale added, “We have booked Gandhi and Shah under Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The police claims that it has sufficient evidence against the accused including the bank details of cheques issued by victim to them. “Gandhi is on the run and we are trying to trace him. We have questioned Shah but he denied his involvement in the crime. We are probing the matter further,” Mr Jagdale added.
The police suspects that Gandhi is also into investing money in the share market. “He might have invested complainant’s money in the market and lost it,” another officer said.