Mumbai The Mumbai unit of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested two people, including a builder, in a ₹58 crore cheating case. The two allegedly induced a Byculla-based businessman into investing money in hotels in Shimla and Panchghani and a real estate project at Rey Road offering hefty returns. Later the accused defaulted on repaying him.
The accused have been identified as Irfan Tinwala and Huzefa Ghadiyali. They were arrested on Thursday and have been remanded to police custody till October 10.
Builder Sanjay Chhabariaa, already an accused in DHFL–Yes Bank fraud case, is also an accused in the case.
Tinwala was known to the complainant and in 2018 requested him to invest in his project in Shimla where he had taken a property to develop a hotel. The complainant invested ₹3.50 crore in the project. Allegedly, Tinwala got involved in some irregularities and the GST department attached the Shimla property and auctioned it, stated the FIR.
The complainant said he came to know about this only in 2020.
Tinwala allegedly also got the complainant to invest ₹25.80 crore in 2019 under the pretext of getting BMC approval for a housing project in South Mumbai and opening a 110-room hotel on a 5-acre plot in Panchghani. An MoU mentioning terms and conditions was also signed for the same. Tinwala promised to return a total of ₹38.70 crore to the complainant against his investment.
The complainant met Ghadiyali at a volleyball court introducing himself as a real estate agent for Harbour Heights - a real estate project at Rey Road. On Ghadiyali’s suggestion, the complainant bought six flats in the said project, which was being developed by Radius Sumer Developers Pvt Ltd, where Sanjay Chhabariaa, Rahul Shah and Ramesh Shah are partners.
{{/usCountry}}The complainant met Ghadiyali at a volleyball court introducing himself as a real estate agent for Harbour Heights - a real estate project at Rey Road. On Ghadiyali’s suggestion, the complainant bought six flats in the said project, which was being developed by Radius Sumer Developers Pvt Ltd, where Sanjay Chhabariaa, Rahul Shah and Ramesh Shah are partners.
{{/usCountry}}Ghadiyali induced the complainant to invest ₹30 crore in the project by claiming that he will get a return of ₹42 crore after a year. Trusting Ghadiyali, the complainant took a loan and transferred ₹30 crore into the bank account of M/s Radius Sumer Developers. An MoU was signed to this effect which also mentioned details about some properties which were cited as mortgage, said the FIR.
After a year the complainant didn’t get back his money and when he approached Ghadiyali, he requested another year’s time offering an additional interest of ₹6 crore. The complainant agreed to the offer. When he did not get the promised return after another year had passed, he confronted Ghadiyali, who told him that they would have to rope in Tinwala to recover money from the builder. The complainant also opened a joint bank account with Tinwala for the purpose, an EOW officer said.
Apprantly, Tinwala facilitated some meetings between the complainant Chhabariaa’s son. However, the complainant later discovered that he was meeting impersonators who posed as representatives and directors of Radius Sumer Developers. Although Tinwala managed to recover ₹19 crore from the developers, he allegedly diverted this amount from their joint account to his company, Tinwala Developers, the very next day, the complainant alleged in the FIR.
The complainant later discovered that the properties mortgaged with him were bogus and Tinwala had forged the properties documents.
EOW officials are also investigating Chhabariaa’s involvement in the case.