Coal company director, ad agency owner booked for cheating
Mumbai The foreign regional registration office (FRRO) of the Mumbai police has lodged a cheating and forgery case against a coal company director and an advertisement agency owner for allegedly misusing the name and position of honorary consul of San Marino in India, without authorisation by the European country and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Police officials said one of the accused - Vatsal Agarwal, a resident of Versova, is a director of Simplex Coke and Refractory Pvt. Ltd., Andheri, which supplies coal to small industries, whereas the other - Avinash Sharma, a Goregaon resident, runs an advertisement agency, ‘Digitally Yours’ that has an office in Malad (West) and the two have business relations.
According to the police, on February 22, 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) wrote to the Maharashtra government seeking inquiry of a person Vatsal Agarwal, who claimed that he had been appointed/recommended as honorary consul of San Marino in India. MEA informed the state government that when they checked details of his appointment with the Indian consulate in Rome, they were told that no such person has been appointed/recommended for the post.
State government on April 1 wrote to the Mumbai police commissioner, who ordered Special Branch-2 to enquire into the matter. On the orders of DCP Special Branch-2 and FRRO Niyati Thaker-Dave, police inspector Ravindra Katkar and Rohini Deshmukh conducted an inquiry after which the FRRO lodged a complaint with the Bangur Nagar police station against Agarwal and Sharma on Friday.
As per the FIR, Sharma offered Agarwal and his father that he could get (Vatsal) Agarwal appointed as honorary consul of San Marino in India for a consideration of ₹7 lakh.
Agarwal, who has toured many countries, was convinced and paid ₹2 lakh advance to Sharma, who on February 10, 2022, gave them a recommendation letter on the forged letterhead and using the forged signature of the Ambassador De San Marino. After this Agarwal paid the rest of the ₹5 lakh to Sharma, states the FIR (of which HT has a copy).
Sharma allegedly also published an advertisement declaring Agarwal’s appointment as honorary consul of San Marino.
Agarwal later wrote to the MEA requesting them to upload his name as honorary consul of San Marino in India on the MEA’s website. MEA responded to his request saying that no such post exists in the first place and asked him to refrain from publishing any material regarding the same without the permission of the government of India.
However, despite this, Agarwal kept using the name and position of honorary consul of San Marino in India and posted information on various online mediums for publicity, the complainant police officer stated.
“Probe also revealed that Sharma offers his clients a rate card for the posts of honorary consul of countries like Moldova, Senegal, Albania, etc. against the fee ranging from ₹10 lakh to ₹18.50 lakh,” said a police officer privy to the enquiry.
Agarwal said that he is not aware of any case registered against him and claimed that it was the PR agency which had made the mistake and not him. He claimed that when they discovered the ‘mistake’, they published clarification in the newspapers. Sharma too said that he is not aware of the FIR and claimed that he just did the PR work for Agarwal and nothing else.
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