Restaurateur Farrokh Khambata booked for forgery

Mumbai chef Farrokh Khambata is accused of forgery by his wife, who claims he took loans using her forged signatures without her knowledge.

MUMBAI: One of the city’s top chef-cum-restaurateurs, most known for bespoke catering services and being sought out by the who’s who of the country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Farrokh Khambata is in the news not for opening yet another fine dining restaurant, but for being implicated in a case of forgery by his wife, Dilshad.

Dilshad and Farrokh Khambata with Shobha and Dilip De - Amadeus Restaurant launch at NCPA, Nariman Point

On Monday, the Gamdevi police registered a case against the famous chef following a complaint lodged by Dilshad, where she claimed her husband had taken loans from various financial institutions forging her signatures and making her co-borrower in the loans. The case against him involves making false documents, forgery and forged document or electronic record, using them as genuine.

“We have registered a case on the complaint of Dilshad Farrokh Khambata, a resident of Altamount Road in south Mumbai. They were married in 1997 and have a 23-year-old son,” said a police officer.

Incidentally, this complaint comes over four months after the family reported him missing. According to the officer, Dilshad had reported her husband missing on September 20, 2024. According to the FIR, when Farrokh had not come home since April 5, 2024, the family approached the Gamdevi police to file the case. Police did not manage to make any headway as they failed to track him down through his phone records, HT has learnt.

Further checks revealed that her signatures on the loan documents had been forged.

“When she contacted a finance company, she learnt that her husband had taken loans from four banks and five financial institutions. She was made a co-borrower in at least two loan cases, apparently without her knowledge. This was done between June 28, 2024, and September 2024; we have also asked for other banks’ and financial institutions’ loan documents submitted by him,” said the police officer.

“We have booked him under sections 335 (making false documents), 336 (2) (forgery) and 340 (2) (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” said the police officer.

In the noughties, when Farrokh was coming into his own, both he and his wife rose in the pecking order of SoBo society. His Asian restaurants Joss and Umame, and the Mediterranean Amadeus, have been among the most coveted in the country, popular among both food connoisseurs and celebrities. The restauranteur also opened Jaan at the Penthouse, a posh progressive Indian restaurant, in Dubai, and even ran a Thai Robata fine dining restaurant Izaya, to accentuate an amalgamation of food and conversation, at Nariman Point.

HT’s questions to Dilshad on the state of the businesses and the alleged financial fraud remained unanswered.