INDIA. Mumbai: Jagdish Bhagwan Ahuja, Director of the Mumbai-based construction firm, was arrested from Punjab on charges of duping an investor by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police and was remanded to police custody on Saturday.
While Jagdish Ahuja was arrested on December 16, his son and another director of the “Ahuja Constructions”, wanted in the case, are still at large.
An FIR (No 940/2022) was registered with Santacruz Police based on a complaint of Ravi Harkishan Vaswani (57), who alleged that the father-son duo duped him of Rs 19,30,92,402/- by giving a false promise of giving him four flats in a housing complex- O2 project at Chunabhatti, Sion in Mumbai North Central.
The FIR registered by Santacruz police was reregistered as No 124/2022 by the EOW, and charges under sections 406, 409, 420, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code were levelled against the accused.
The accused were convicted in a cheque-bouncing case of Rs 10 lakh in March 2021 and were sentenced to six months by the 14th Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Mumbai. They had taken a loan and handed over a cheque that bounced due to insufficient funds.
The accused were arrested near the Bombay High Court on June 3 this year after they failed to get relief against their six-month conviction in a lower court.
As of today, the duo carries 135 cases of cheque bouncing under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act 1888 on their head, registered against them by duped home buyers in Mumbai, Pune, and other cities in Maharashtra.
The cases registered by the EOW against the duo earlier include FIR (No 143/2022) under sections 406, 409, 420, 34 IPC and section 3 of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999 (MPID Act), on charges of duping 34 investors of Rs 17,31,00,000. Another FIR (No 152/2022) has been lodged against the duo for duping an investor of Rs 12,31,21,800. Police Sub Inspector Manisha Dhekale is making further investigations.
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