Mumbai police arrested two people last week for trying to illegally seal a restaurant property in Juhu worth Rs 20 crore. There are a total of five accused in the case out of which three are absconding. The accused persons who have connections in the legal department tried to seal the property, earlier known as 'China Town' restaurant, by allegedly producing a fake court order.
The in-depth details of the case was recently uncovered by a senior police official who also noticed some members of the local police involved in the case. The case of this 6,000 sq ft. property was then transferred from Juhu police station to the Santacruz police, and the investigating officer was asked to proceed on leave.
3 accused persons absconding
Following the order, on Friday, the Santacruz police arrested two of the hoteliers identified as Mahesh Shetty, 56 and Vijay Thackeray, 55. Meanwhile the three absconding accused persons have been identified as Hitesh Naik, a cousin of a former encounter specialist, one Vishal Shah and an advocate VK Dubey. A manhunt to nab the three has been launched.
Police have booked them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 420 (cheating), 464 (forgery), 406 (breach of trust), using forged documents and criminal conspiracy.
According to the police, on March 21, Karnik received a notice from a Bihar Court stating that the court receiver would come to take possession of the property on March 24. He claimed that there was no pending case against him and yet he received the summon notice. The police added saying after Karnik was summoned to Bihar, the accused persons Shetty, Shah and Thackeray busted into Karnik's property with the court receiver Dubey to take possession of the property.
On April 4, a team of police and some bouncers came and took possession and sealed the premises of the property. Karnik reached the police station and lodged a complaint saying that they had illegally locked his premises with the fake Bihar court order, added the police.
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