The police have booked five officers of a Bhandup-based firm for cheating a textile company to the tune of Rs2.54 crore. The accused company allegedly took raw materials and in return provided 19 cheques which bounced.
The complainant Balan Nadar (59) is an employee of VSM Weavess India Pvt Ltd, which has its head office in Tamil Nadu, and two branches in Mumbai and Delhi.
According to Nadar, they were approached by a man named Devand Shah in May 2023, who claimed to be the business head of Viyanka Impex Private Ltd, which is listed as a textile company. As per reports, the directors of this company are Swati Padwal and Gaurav Rathi.
The accused company, which has their office at Bhandup’s Sonapur Lane, wanted to place an order in large quantities. Between May to October, VSM Weavess dispatched their first order to Viyanka for which the latter paid Rs1.37 crore.
Since the deal went as expected, when the victim company received the second purchase order they accepted it without any doubts. The second purchase order worth Rs1.26 crore was dispatched, but even after several months, Viyanka didn’t pay the money. After several meetings with Devang Shah, Nadar said, they provided 13 cheques but all of them bounced due to insufficient funds.
When Nadar visited the Bhandup office, he found that the office was almost empty. Nadar was told by some employees that the office is being moved to another state. Gaurav Rathi allegedly assured Nadar that the money will be paid soon and provided six more cheques which bounced again.
In the FIR, along with Nadar, another complainant named Nirajkumar Vishwakarma (29) has also given his statement. Vishwakarma's company, Priyanka Trading, located in Gujarat, had similar business relations with Viyanka Impex. The first purchase order’s money was paid to Vishwakarma’s company, but the second purchase order amounting to Rs10 lakh were still pending.
The third complainant Lakshmi Jai Rajdev (47), who runs a manufacturing company in Gujarat, faced similar experience from Viyanka Impex. The said company paid the full amount of the first purchase order, but the second purchase order’s Rs1.18 lakh is still left unpaid.
When Nadar visited Viyanka Impex’s office in Bhandup, he found out that the company was closed. Hence, he approached the Bhandup police to register the complaint along with Vishwakarma and Rajdev.
In the FIR, police have mentioned Gaurav Rathi, Devang Shah, Natasha Dsouza (manager), Khusbu Parmar (account head), and Swati Padwal as the accused.
