Two diamond agents, including a woman, and a jeweller who allegedly cheated a diamond firm of Rs 23 crore were arrested on Thursday outside the Bombay High Court after their anticipatory bail plea was rejected.
Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested the trio who have been identified as Bupendra Deepran Trivedi (45), Anita Bhatia alias Lata Govind Khera (49) and Ashok Ratanchand Jain (39) under various charges of cheating, breach of trust and forgery. They have been remanded to police custody till October 10.
While Trivedi and Khera are diamond agents, Jain is a jeweller from the Matunga area.
Khera has already been arrested twice in the past - in a 2006 diamond cheating case and a hawala transaction case.
They were arrested after the high court rejected their anticipatory bail application.
According to investigating officer Bhaskar Pingat, the trio had applied for anticipatory bail saying the amount involved was Rs 4 crore and not Rs 23 crore.
"A battery of lawyers representing the accused conducted lengthy arguments for nearly two weeks, after which the court asked the accused, who admitted to having cheated the trader of Rs 4 crore, to deposit either the diamonds or cash in court. But the accused deposited only Rs 50 lakh in cash and diamonds worth Rs 70 lakh. The court rejected their bail plea,'' said another senior officer.
The complaint in this case was filed by Pushpa Corporation, a diamond trading firm situated at Grant Road. Last year, Khera and Trivedi approached Pushpa Corporation saying that Jain wanted to buy diamonds from the firm. Pushpa Corporation sold him a few diamonds through Khera and Trivedi. "Jain completed approximately two dozen transactions in six months and made timely payment and gained the firm's confidence. After some time, though, the payments stopped and the outstanding bills' amount crossed Rs 23 crore,'' said inspector Pingat.
When despite several reminders there was no sign of payment, the firm filed an FIR.
According to investigating officer Bhaskar Pingat, the trio had applied for anticipatory bail saying the amount involved was Rs 4 crore and not Rs 23 crore
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