3 promise man to release his gold, cheat him of 10L

Surat: Three persons have allegedly cheated a diamond broker of Rs 10.16 lakh by promising to help him in the release his gold seized by the customs at Mumbai airport. Bhavesh Kapuriya (43) has filed a complaint at Chowk Bazar police station. Police have booked three persons — Deep Kapuriya, K D Sheladiya and Tushar — under Sections 420 and 114 of IPC.

According to the case, Ved road resident Kapuriya bought gold worth Rs 18.47 lakh from Bangkok in Aug 2023. When he landed at the Mumbai airport, his gold was seized by the customs and he was given a seizure memo. He was told that he should come to release his gold when he got the summons. Back in Surat, Kapuriya talked to his nephew Deep Kapuriya, an advocate, about the issue. Deep told Kapuriya that his senior K D Sheladiya would help him. Then Deep took Kapuriya to Sheladiya’s office. There, Kapuriya was told that Tushar would get his work done in ‘setting’ the issue as has good contacts at Mumbai airport. After that, Deep and Tushar told Kapuriya that the work would be done through Tushar’s friend and customs officer ‘Mishra Saheb’ for which he would charge Rs 40,000. Tushar asked Kapuriya to transfer the amount to two other persons — Malhar Makhiya and Pradip Gadhvi — so that Mishra’s job was not in trouble. Kapuriya transferred Rs 35,000 to their accounts in Jan 2024.After that, Kapuriya went to Mumbai airport to meet ‘Mishra Saheb’ twice but Deep, Tushar and others could not make him meet Kapuriya. Kapuriya started receiving mails from Mumbai customs officer Nilesh Kadam. One mail said Kapuriya should pay Rs 5,08,200 to release his gold and it should be paid through an export-import company. So Tushar arranged for his Dubai friend and told Kapuriya to transfer the amount to him. Tushar then asked Kapuriya to transfer Rs 5,08,200 to the bank account of Darshan Mehta. Tushar later gave a fake receipt of Mumbai airport to Kapuriya. On Dec 31, 2023, Tushar called Kapuriya and asked him to pay him Rs 5,08,200 by cash so that the bank entry could be reversed. So, Kapuriya gave him Rs 5,08,200 by cash. However, when entry reversal did not happen, Kapuriya asked Tushar about this but Tushar gave him excuses that Mehta’s account had been seized and a Mumbai court order would be needed to operate it. In the meantime, Kapuriya got four summons from Mumbai airport customs. He kept calling Sheladiya but he did not respond. So Kapuriya took the help of another advocate, Priti Kothari, who went to Mumbai airport customs with Kapuriya and found that the mails of Nilesh Kadam that had been sent were fake. After realising that he had been cheated, Kapuriya gave a complaint to police on Feb 28. Police filed an FIR on March 26.