3 booked for duping cloth supplier of ₹5.4 crore

The trio, identified as Akhtar Shaikh, Rakesh Goyal and Nilofer Penwala, took cloth material worth ₹5.38 crore on credit from the complainant, but neither paid the money to him nor returned the material.

Mumbai: Three garment traders were booked, on Thursday, for allegedly duping a south Mumbai-based cloth supplier of ₹5.38 crore. The trio, identified as Akhtar Shaikh, Rakesh Goyal and Nilofer Penwala, took cloth material worth ₹5.38 crore on credit from the complainant, but neither paid the money to him nor returned the material.

The LT Marg police have booked the trio under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and are probing the case. (Image for representation)

The complaint was filed by Sanjay Jain, a Khetwadi resident who is into buying and selling grey fabric and has an office in Kalbadevi.

In 2021, Jain met the accused Shaikh through a broker Riyaz Khan. Khan expressed his desire to do business with Jain and told him that he was an old businessman and that many other traders knew him well.

Since Jain trusted Khan, he agreed to do business with Shaikh and supplied grey fabric to him. Initially, Jain received timely payment of the ordered material. However, later Shaikh started defaulting payments and his outstanding exceeded ₹1 crore, the police complaint said.

Jain followed up with Shaikh and demanded his payment. Initially, Shaikh kept on buying time, but later on, one day he threatened Jain not to ask for money otherwise he would face serious trouble, Jain alleged in the FIR

Meanwhile, when everything was well between Shaikh and Jain, Shaikh introduced another trader, Rakesh Goyal, to Jain and requested to also do business with him. Since Jain was already trading with Shaikh, he trusted Goyal and started supplying grey fabric to him as well.

However, Goyal too initially made regular payments of orders, but later on, started defaulting. His outstanding with Jain exceeded over ₹2 crores. Later, when Jain rigorously followed up with Goyal, he issued three cheques worth ₹1 crore to Jain, but they were not processed.

When Jain called Goyal, he threatened to kill him.

When Jain contacted Shaikh and told him about the bad business experience with Goyal, he introduced him to a Goregaon-based trader Nilofer Penwala, saying that Goyal used to sell his material to her. Penwala offered Jain a good deal and asked him to directly sell grey fabric to her company.

Jain then started supplying fabric to her company.

Like Shaikh and Goyal, Penwala too initially made timely payment for the material received from Jain, but later she too defaulted on payment. Her outstanding went up to ₹1.90 crores.

Jain finally approached the police and filed a complaint saying Shaikh, Goyal and Penwala had bought grey fabric worth ₹1.10 crore, ₹2.26 crore and ₹2.02 crore respectively and did not make payment for the same.

The LT Marg police have booked the trio under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and are probing the case.