4 held in Mumbai for duping city-based firm of 75 crore

INDORE: Economic offenses wing (EOW) sleuths from Mumbai have arrested four persons of a company who had duped Rs 75 crore from a Indore-based company that was looking for finance to fund its new acquisition of a coal mine in Australia. The accused claiming for be affiliated to a UK based company had promised a loan of $500 million to the local company.Meanwhile, the MP bureau of investigation of economic offences MP, formerly EOW, was caught unawares about the case. Manoj Singh, superintendent of police (EOW Indore) said that nobody has contacted them so far. “We will assist if any complainant comes forward and approach us.” Talking to TOI, ACP of EOW, Mumbai, Rajvardhan said four functionaries of a company, FIC Finance (India) Limited, who posed as representatives of Fortis International Inc. UK were arrested. Those arrested were Khalique Ahmed Khalil vice president, Vinayak Seshadri director accounts, Devendra Galid head, administration and one Shabih Ahmed Wazir Ahmed. Mumbai EOW claimed FIC Finance (India) Limited, has no affiliation to Fortis International Inc. A local court in Mumbai has remanded the four in EOW custody till October 29. Sources said, the Indore-based business group, came across FIC Finance (India) Limited, a company registered with the Registrar of Companies. The office bearers of FIC reportedly told the Indore-based group that their parent company in London had earmarked Rs 5,000 crore to be invested in real estate in India. The Indore-based group sought a loan of $ 500 million (approximately Rs 2690 crore) to acquire a coal mine in January this year. The FIC office bearers allegedly asked them to pay Rs 45 lakh as processing fee, Rs 11 crore as brokerage, Rs 59 crore as bank guarantee and Rs 5 crore as short term loan, all totalling over Rs 75 crore. Later, officials of FIC issued two cheques to the Indore-based company, which could not be encashed for insufficient funds. “When the borrower tried to get his money back by refusing the loan, the accused issued post-dated cheques that bounced,” EOW sources said. Finally, the company lodged a complaint with EOW Mumbai. A case of cheating under Section 420 of IPC, forgery (465 IPC), forgery of valuable security (467 IPC), forgery for purpose of cheating (468 IPC) and using as genuine, a forged document (471 IPC) has been registered against the four.