Hyderabad bizman booked for duping Adani group’s cement arm of Rs 2 crore using forged bank guarantee

Hyderabad: A forged bank guarantee and a trail of unpaid dues have landed a Hyderabad-based businessman in police trouble, with the Adani group's cement arm, ACC Limited, alleging it was cheated of nearly Rs 2 crore. Panjagutta police have registered a case of cheating and forgery, and are now searching for the accused, who has allegedly gone off the radar.According to a complaint filed by ACC regional sales manager Chennabasava Bhuma, Jaya Prakash Inanparthy, proprietor of JP Infra and Engineering, along with his associate P Manmohan, allegedly duped the company of Rs 1.96 crore.
The complainant stated that the accused approached ACC's Hyderabad regional office in Feb 2022 seeking cement supplies for multiple projects. As per the understanding between the two parties, JP Infra agreed to furnish a Rs 2 crore bank guarantee before the dispatch of cement. The accused subsequently submitted a bank guarantee, purportedly issued by Punjab National Bank's Mandra branch in Hooghly district of West Bengal for Rs 2 crore. Relying on the document's authenticity, ACC supplied cement against seven purchase orders worth over Rs 2 crore during 2022-23. "The accused only made a part payment of Rs 5.6 lakh and our company, acting in good faith, sought recovery of the outstanding amount of Rs 1.96 crore, and approached the bank for encashment of the bank guarantee. However, in an email (dated March 31, 2023), the bank categorically informed that the said bank guarantee was never issued by them," the complainant alleged. Following this revelation, ACC officials confronted the accused. Their representative, Kishor, submitted an apology letter on April 5, 2023, admitting that the bank guarantee was forged."Kishor attempted to shift blame solely on Manmohan and undertook to make a part payment of Rs 85 lakh by April 8, 2023, and the balance by April 25. But no further payments materialised," the complainant alleged. ACC representatives subsequently made repeated attempts to contact the accused for recovery of the remaining amount, but the accused allegedly became incommunicado. Based on the complaint, Panjagutta police registered a case under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), read with 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. "The complainant firm's representatives believe that the accused deliberately cheated them and now they are not operating from the known addresses. They have provided us different addresses linked to the accused company, their PAN and GST registration details. We are in the process of locating the accused," said a police official.