Mumbai: Four persons of a maritime firm have been booked for defrauding a Sewree company of Rs1.9 crore on the pretext of building a fishing boat. The booked persons include directors and representatives of M/s Mar Cielo Maritime Pvt Ltd (MCML) – Jaichandra Sonu and Sailaja Kumari Lakshmi, Prasanna Sivanandan and Pradeep Menon.
The complainant is Ajay Gulab Bhai Kundaliya, the director of SKSL, which had received a contract from the Maharashtra government for a fishing boat. He told the police that his firm placed the order for a 14.49mt long and 4.01mt wide boat with the speed of 22 nautical miles per hour with MCML for Rs3.7 crore.
The accused officials from MCML first said that their company is based in Dubai and make boats for the Indian Navy, later stating that they have shifted base to Kochi.
They showed Kundaliya bogus photos of the boat in the making and took Rs 1.9 crore between April and October last year. When Kundaliya went to see the boat himself, he didn’t find anything.
He pursued the accused persons for either the boat or full refund of money and complained to the Byculla police when he didn’t make any headway.
The accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and further probe into the case is underway, the police said.
