Surat-based trader arrested for duping garment suppliers of ₹36 lakh

A garment trader was arrested in Surat for duping Mumbai-based suppliers of ₹36.33 lakh. The accused, Neeraj Jain, was remanded in police custody until August 27.

MUMBAI: A garment trader has been arrested recently in Surat for allegedly duping several Mumbai-based suppliers to the tune of ₹36.33 lakh.

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The arrested accused, identified as Neeraj Jain, was wanted since June after an FIR was registered against him. One of his associates, Aradhna Singh, is still at large.

Jain was brought to Mumbai and was produced in a court, which remanded him in police custody till August 27.

According to the Mulund police, the case was registered by Naitik Bhailal Savla, 30, a resident of Mulund East. He said that his father Bhailal Savla, 65, has been into garment manufacturing for the past four decades and he has been helping his father in the business for the last 10 years.

Savla in his statement to the police said that in 2020, he had received a phone call from Neeraj Jain, who offered to purchase clothes from them for his retail and wholesale business in Surat.

After a meeting in Mulund, Savla’s father visited Jain’s business establishment in Surat and they began working together. For one year, Jain was paying the father-son duo regularly and won their trust.

In July 2021, Jain introduced the Savlas to Aradhna Singh, who owned a kids wear business in Surat. Since Jain was trusted by the father-son duo, they agreed to do business with Singh. They also introduced Jain and Singh to 8-10 other wholesalers in Mumbai, who supplied clothes to the duo.

Singh and Jain ordered clothes from the wholesalers, but both failed to pay the due amounts to the sellers. The wholesalers then questioned Savla as he was the one who had introduced Jain and Singh to them and had taken commission on the supply. When the complainant went to Surat to confront Jain and Singh, they abused and threatened him and told him that they would not pay the amount, a police officer said.

“Afet returning to the city, Savla approached the Mulund police. The police registered a case on the charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating against the accused and recorded the statement of all the suppliers,” Kantilal Kothimbire, senior inspector, said.