Two booked for duping Iranian bizman of ₹3cr

Dadar police have registered a first information report (FIR), based on the complaint of a 60-year-old Iranian businessman, against two owners of a city-based firm

Dadar police have registered a first information report (FIR), based on the complaint of a 60-year-old Iranian businessman, against two owners of a city-based firm for allegedly cheating him of ₹2.9 crore.

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The complainant, Mohammed Malikiane Surkh, is the co-owner of Tehran-based Saba Bahar Private Limited, which deals with the import and export of food items. He said he had placed an order for maize corn worth ₹22.35 crore with a Dadar-based firm, Royal Agro Company, in September 2012. The accused firm demanded an advance payment of around ₹2.9 crore, which Surkh’s company made in October 2012 and February 2013. Despite written assurances, first to Surkh and then to the Iranian consulate in the city, the firm did not deliver the materials on time. Instead, they produced fake documents to show that the goods had been dispatched.

Surkh, through the consulate, then submitted a complaint to the Mumbai Economic Offences Wing (EOW). As the EOW only probes cases valued at ₹6 crore or more, the complaint was forwarded to Dadar police. D Shelke, senior inspector, Dadar police station, confirmed the development.

Kashinath Jadhav, one of the accused, denied the allegations against him and his partner Vikash Gaikwad. “I had sent the material and also made payment to a company on their instructions. The matter is purely of civil nature. I have the documents, receipts and transactions details to prove my innocence and support my claims,” he said.

“Surkh’s company also approached the National Company Law Tribunal and secured a verdict in their favour. But we have lodged a criminal case against Jadhav and Gaikwad in Dadar police station for the criminal act,” said advocate Cyril Dara, representing Surkh.