Mumbai: A 45-year-old woman from Chembur and her friend were allegedly cheated of ₹1.64 crore by a man who lured them with a promise of high returns from an investment in a gold jewellery manufacturing business.
The Nehru Nagar Police have registered a case against the accused, Rishabh Deepak Pahuja,32, for cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 318(4) and 316(2).
According to the police complaint filed by Farida Husefa Bagsarawala, a resident of Sahakar Nagar in Chembur, the accused Pahuja convinced her to invest in his jewellery business under the name Tikamdas Motiram Jewellers.
Pahuja reportedly coerced Farida and her friend Mihir Parikh to mortgage a residential property registered in their names to obtain a loan from Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. The loaned amount was used to purchase the same property back from Farida, and ₹1.50 crore from this transaction was forcibly invested into Pahuja’s jewellery business.
Later, citing business losses, Pahuja promised to promised to transfer ownership of the flat back to Farida. To facilitate the transfer, he allegedly took gold jewellery worth ₹14.75 lakh from Farida but never returned the flat or the jewellery. The total estimated fraud amounts to ₹1.64 crore.
The cheating incident is believed to have taken place between July 2021 and December 2024. Police have launched a detailed investigation into the matter.
