Held for fraud, diamond trader leaps to death

Dubai-based diamond merchant, Deepak Mehta (40), jumped from the terrace of a building in DN Nagar on Sunday evening.

Dubai-based diamond merchant, Deepak Mehta (40), jumped from the terrace of a building in DN Nagar on Sunday evening.

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The Mumbai police’s Crime Branch had arrested Mehta in a fraud of about Rs 2 crore. He was arrested on December 9 at the Delhi airport.

Around 5 pm on Sunday, a team of Anti-Extortion Cell probing the case had taken Mehta to Gurukripa building in D N Nagar, Andheri (W) to his sister’s home for inquiry.

“After a while, Mehta freed himself from the officers holding him and rushed to the terrace and leapt off the building terrace,” said a source. When the officers rushed to the building compound, Mehta was lying in a pool of blood.

“He was taken to Cooper Hospital, Juhu where he was declared dead on admission.”

In April 2007, Deepak and his friend Nirav Mehta, had allegedly swindled the owner of a diamond firm. They had, in connivance with a Russian woman, cheated the firm owner of diamonds worth Rs 1.60 crore.

The trio had allegedly masqueraded as diamond brokers when they met the diamond firm owner who subsequently filed a complaint against Deepak, Nirav and their accomplice.

The police are still on the lookout for Mehta’s associate, Nirav.