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‘Finding Fanny’ singer, 9 band members duped of ₹17.77 crore in Mumbai
Rodney Fernandes, who has sung for the film ‘Finding Fanny’, confirmed he had approached the Mahim police last week, but refused to comment further as the investigation is underway.
Singer Rodney Fernandes recently filed a complaint with the Mahim police, alleging that four people duped him and nine others from his band to the tune of ₹17.77 crore. According to Fernandes, the accused had promised him and the others 18% to 22% annual interest, but failed to pay them the returns and the principal after some time.
Fernandes, who has sung for the film ‘Finding Fanny’, confirmed he had approached the Mahim police last week, but refused to comment further as the investigation is underway. Kailash Chavan, senior inspector, also confirmed that a cheating case was registered last week on Fernandes’s complaint, which named two men — Mayur Agarwal and his uncle, Sanjay Agarwal. Chavan said the case was going to be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The cops are on the lookout for two other men.
A Mahim resident, Fernandes, who owns Rodney Entertainment, has a 10-member band. In his complaint, Fernandes stated that he and his band members used to invest earnings in gold.
An officer said that in 2013, Fernandes got in touch with one Ashok Jain, who claimed he owned an entertainment company. “Jain assured Fernandes good returns on his investments in his company. Fernandes started getting returns at 9% interest.” Fernandes was then introduced to Agarwal in Jain’s office. In September 2015, Agarwal told Fernandes that his uncle, Sanjay, can give him 18-22% returns on his investment. “From October 2015 to February 2018, Fernandes invested ₹15.62 crore in Sanjay’s realty firm. Initially, he got returns and this prompted his other band members to invest ₹2.15 crore,” said the officer.
However, from November 2016, Fernandes and his band members stopped receiving any interest or the principal amount, said the police. When the victims asked Agarwal, he told them the cash was with Sanjay. “Sanjay claimed he had invested ₹8 crore of the cash to buy a land in Surat and a building was proposed there. He told them that once the project was passed, they would get double the amount invested. Sanjay claimed the remaining amount was used by Agarwal,” said another officer.
When Fernandes and the others did not get their cash for two years, he questioned Sanjay, and found he had several cheating cases registered against him with the EOW. He then approached the cops, said the officer.
