Promising Rs 1,000 crore loan, conmen dupe firm of Rs 55 lakh

The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested one out of the three people involved in cheating a real estate company Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) to the tune of Rs 55 lakh by promising them a loan of Rs 1,000 crore. According to the police, all three accused, Khalique Ahmed, Deepak Banga and Devendra Gailad, presented themselves to top HDIL officials as directors and officials of Finance India Limited (FIL).

Money talk
According to the three accused, they had a balance of 100 billion euros in their State Bank of India (SBI) accounts and had dispersed various loans running into crores to several parties. "AS HDIL was in need of a loan of Rs 1,000 crore, they were asked to deposit Rs 55 lakh into the accounts of the company as procession, mortgage and several other charges," said a police officer from EOW.

HDIL was also asked to deposit Rs 60 crore (6 per cent of the loan amount) as Bank Guarantee and were told that the loan will be dispersed by Converse Commerce Ltd, a subsidiary of FIL. However, after depositing Rs 55 lakh, the three accused stopped taking the calls of HDIL officers.

Realising that they were cheated, Vice President and Company Secretary of HDIL Darshan Dhrupad Mujumdar approached the EOW. Following that, the police registered a case against the accused under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery) of valuable security, 468 (forgery) for the purpose of cheating and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC.

Cop speak
"We have arrested Devendra Gailad, a resident of Bhandup, and have got his police custody. We will come to know if they were working with FIL or not only after interrogation. The other two are still on the run and a hunt is on for them," said a police officer from the EOW.u00a0