Bizman who met financial advisor at Covid-19 centre dupes him of ₹1.95 crore

A 44-year-old financial advisor was cheated out of ₹1.95 crore by a 26-year-old businessman he met at a Covid-19 center in Navi Mumbai. The businessman promised to help clear police cases against the advisor by claiming connections with a government minister. The fraud involved demands for money, false promises, and even threats with a pistol. Five people, including the businessman, have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

MUMBAI: A 44-year-old senior financial advisor was cheated to the tune of ₹1.95 crore by a 26-year-old businessman whom he met at a Covid-19 centre in Navi Mumbai in 2020. While in quarantine, the accused businessman, Ali Raza Shaikh and the victim, Eric Jimmy Anklesaria, 44, a resident of Matunga, were acquainted and started talking.

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Anklesaria took Shaikh in confidence and shared that there are several police cases registered in his name. Shaikh assured him of clearing the cases by claiming that his four friends and he are close aides of Maharashtra agricultural minister Dhananjay Munde.

This led to the execution of the fraud in which Anklesaria lost ₹1.95 crore.

Anklesaria told the police that in December 2020, a case was registered against him in Turbhe police station. “He was booked for molesting a physiotherapist, whom he had approached as a patient with a ‘problem.’ Similarly, another case has been registered against the 44-year-old in Mumbai as well,” said a police officer. He was arrested however, but at the time he tested positive for COVID-19 and was put in a quarantine centre in Navi Mumbai where he met Shaikh.

Shaikh told him that one of his friends, Walmiki Golher, worked in the office of Munde and they met at Tunga Hotel in Vashi where Golher told him that his work would be done. “Later they met at Vidhan Bhawan where one person identified as Chavan told him that they would require ₹47 lakh and would help in getting the cases against him quashed,” said the police officer.

After a few days, they again demanded ₹10 lakh from the complainant Anklesaria saying that to take the legal opinion of senior counsel he would have to be paid ₹10 lakh.

“Later, they promised the complainant and his partners that they would secure a liquor licence for them in Panchgani, Satara and took money from them on various pretexts like registration and various fees to be paid to the government and government officials,” said the police officer.

He added that the complainant even paid money as an investment in Shaikh’s APMC business as the accused told him he would give him ₹19 lakh if he invested ₹12 lakh in just 40 days. In this manner, the gang took a total of ₹1.95 crore from the complainant from September 27, 2021, to February 14, 2022. The other accused in the case are identified as Jai alias Raju Manglani, Walmiki Golher, Vijay Nadar and Vikrant Sonawane,” said the police officer.

The complainant was even threatened with a pistol by Shaikh after he demanded his money back.

“We have registered the case and are investigating it. We know that Walmiki Golher is not at all associated with Munde’s office,” said a police officer. The complainant has worked with various reputable companies. The five are booked under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 506(II) (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.