Soft drink supplier duped of Rs 2.2 cr

CHENNAI: A 38-year-old man has lodged a complaint at the Central Crime Branch that a family of three cheated him of Rs 2.20 crore on the promise of getting licences to run shops at railway stations.

The victim, F Benjamin Arokiyaraj, buys soft drinks in bulk and supplies them to shops in MGR Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations.

In 2018, his customer KM Mustafa of Erode, who runs shops selling snacks at different railway stations, approached Benjamin claiming that using his connections in the railway, he got licence for a shop inside railway premises that could fetch at Rs 10 lakh profit every month. But due to his inability to mobilise funds to the tune of Rs 2 crore as licence fee, he was not able to pursue it, Mustafa claimed, and offered it to Benjamin.

As Mustafa was prompt in payment for the goods he supplied, Benjamin trusted him and paid money to the tune of Rs 2.20 crore to different bank accounts. Mustafa asked Benjamin to wait for a few months. But when there was no response even after a year, Benjamin started demanding his money back.

Initially he was asked to approach one Santhosh to get the money back, but Santhosh told him a few months later that he was also cheated by Mustafa as all the shops allotted to him were licenced for just six months.

When Benjamin went back to Mustafa in January, the latter promised to transfer the licence of Food Plaza at Tambaram railway station in his name within a month. However, that did not happen. Benjamin waited for the second wave of COVID to subside and confronted Mustafa, but only received abuses and threats in return.

Based on his complaint, the Central Crime Branch have registered a case and further investigation is on.