52-year-old Bandra resident duped of ₹6 crore by relatives

Bandra police filed an FIR after Gurudatt Kamath accused relatives of duping him of ₹6 crore in a business partnership involving essential oils.

MUMBAI: The Bandra police on Thursday registered an FIR following a complaint lodged by a 52-year-old Turner Road resident, against two of his relatives for allegedly duping him of ₹6 crore. In his complaint, Gurudatt Kamath, has stated that he had started manufacturing essential oils in the year 1999 along with his two sisters under the name Mahamaya Fragrance Company.

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In 2000, his relatives Shyamsundar Naik, Vasant Naik showed interest in joining the business. Kamath claimed that he along with Naik formed another company named Shirsha Fragrance. Kamath further stated that he had 50% stake in the Shirsha Biotech and the Naik’s had 25% each. In 2007, they started a factory at Kundapur in Karnataka which had four partners, including the Naik’s and their father Manjunath Naik.

According to Kamath, there was change in partnership stakes in 2013 following which there were only two partners namely him and Shyamsundar Naik. Kamath said that the roles were also clearly divided where Shyamsundar Naik was to handle the production and finance of the company, while he was to handle the marketing and sales operations.

However, in 2019, they wanted to shift their company bank account, and financial documents were sought by the new bank. During the verification of the financial documents, Kamath claimed that he found supposed misappropriation. The chartered accountant who was carrying out the financial responsibility claimed that he had made the accounts according to the information provided by Shyamsundar Naik and claimed that he was not aware of any malpractice, if any.

Following this, the company appointed an independent auditor who carried out an audit and found that small amounts of money were siphoned off between 2007 and 2023 amounting to ₹6 crore.

A complaint has been registered at Bandra police station under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 477(A) (falsification), 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons)of the Indian Penal Code, and police officials are further investigating the case.

“We have registered a case and are verifying the complaint,” said a police officer from Bandra police station.