2 brothers arrested for duping advt firm of ₹11 crore

Mumbai police arrest two brothers for allegedly cheating an advertisement company of ₹11.11 crore. The accused ran several companies including a Mediatech company.

MUMBAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police arrested two brothers for allegedly cheating an advertisement company of ₹11.11 crore. The police said the accused ran several companies including a Mediatech company that promoted several politicians and Bollywood movies.

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The accused are identified as Amit Bhagwan Wadhwani, 42, and his brother Vicky Bhagwan Wadhwani, 40, both residents of Chembur. The complaint has been lodged by Manish Thakkar who runs MAD India Private Limited, an advertising agency in Mulund.

“The company takes advertisements from clients and gets them published or aired on various platforms. They get a commission from the media organisation for the same,” said a police officer from EOW.

According to the police, in June 2017, Thakkar was called for a meeting by the Wadhwanis. Considering their large work, refused to work for them claiming that he had limited resources. However, he claimed that the Wadhwanis lured him to work for them claiming that he could become big if he worked for them.

“Later, Thakkar gave their advertisements in several newspapers, and radio and even participated in several events for them, they claimed he would get the money on time. Initially, they paid him but later started avoiding him. When he went to their office in Chembur he was threatened by the bouncers at the office,” said the police officer.

“In total advertisements worth ₹17.07 crores were done by Thakkar for them. They paid ₹5.95 crores to Thakkar, and they owe Thakkar ₹11.11 crores,” said the police officer.

Thakkar approached EOW which registered a case against the duo at Chembur police station under sections 34 (common intention), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

“We arrested both and they have been sent to police custody till January, 20,” said the police officer.

BJP leader Mohit Kamboj took to X to talk about the arrest of the brothers and said they owned Buffering Media which has advertised for more than 100 Bollywood movies in 2022 and are even partners of builder Lalit Tekchandani against whom two cases were registered by the Maharashtra police on Monday.