Con
man dupes NRI pal of life savings
Mumbay, November 15, 2005
Mid Day
By: Nishant A Bhuse
“He assured me good returns, so I invested my
life-savings of Rs 1.5 crore in his enterprise. When
I realised I had been conned, he handed me a demand
draft of the same amount. Later, I found the draft
was forged and the man is now absconding,” says
Shyam Chugh (65) a Hong Kong-based NRI.
Chugh was conned by his friend Anil Samtani, a resident
of Bandra, who is absconding since a week, after the
Khar police station registered a forgery and cheating
case against him on October 29.
Business partners
Chugh met Samtani at a social occasion through Lion’s
Club in May 2004 and the two became friends. “He
was often short of funds, and I always lent him money,
but charged him interest. One day, he asked me to
partner with him in his diamond export business and
claimed I would double my savings,” said Chugh.
The two then jointly launched a company Infidia Ltd
in August 2004 and Chugh invested Rs 1.5 crore in
it. Samtani allegedly said he had a tie-up with the
world’s biggest pearl company, Mikimoto, which
also traded in diamonds.
IP addresses from Andheri
Chugh blindly issued cheques to Samtani for purchasing
and exporting diamonds.
“It was only when my younger son, who is a software
engineer in Hong Kong, arrived in Mumbai in September
2004, that we first realised that we were being conned.
My son told me that the Internet Protocol addresses
were actually created from Andheri itself,” adds
Chugh who then asked Samtani to return his investment.
Cheques bounce
Samtani issued post-dated cheques of Rs 20 lakh each
in December 2004, but all the cheques bounced.
Chugh has now lodged a case against Samtani at the
Bandra court.
Samtani later attempted to settle the payment in September
2005, by issuing demand drafts of Rs 19.40 lakh from
Saraswat Cooperative bank, but they were also forged.
Samtani has been absconding since then.
In the second hearing at the Bandra court on November
8, Samtani did not turn up, so the magistrate issued
a non-bailable warrant against him.
