Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Loan scam: 11 luxury cars worth ` 3.6 crore seized
The three accused arrested in February are in Taloja jail
The Navi Mumbai crime branch has seized 11 high-end cars from a group of directors of a company after they defaulted on car loans taken in names of various companies. The accused had taken loans for 24 high-end expensive cars.
According to deputy commissioner of police ( crime) Dilip Sawant, “Kapil Rajput, Mithilesh Rajput, Devprakaash Rajput, Murugeshan Adimullam and Hemal Jobanputr were directors in 13 companies of Dwarka Group of Companies. Between 2010 and 2012, they had taken vehicle loans of Rs9.5 crore from the Vashi branch of Punjab National Bank to buy 24 cars.”
He said, “They paid the initial loan instalments and then defaulted on the loan repayment. They did not respond to the notices issued by the bank and to avoid action by the bank, shut down their office and fled taking the cars for their personal use.”
A case was registered against them following a complaint by assistant general manager of the bank Anupam Prasad on February 23.
The police then arrested Kapil Rajput, Mithilesh Rajput and Murugeshan Adimullam on February 29. The accused are lodged in Taloja jail.
Sawant said: “Following sustained interrogation of the accused, we have been able to recover 11 cars worth Rs3.59 crore from them.” He added, “We are working on recovering the rest of the cars as well.”
Of the cars seized, four were seized from Rajput’s wife Kiran. Audi was seized from Rajput while Mercedes was seized from his brother Mithilesh who was using it. It was found from outside Panvel’s Garden hotel. One Linea car was seized from a garage in Kopri while the other from former Panvel NCP coun-
Some of the seized cars at CBD Belapur on Saturday.
cilor Sunil Mohad. Police also seized the Corolla and Cruz from Rajput’s chartered accountant Dipesh Thakkar. The Mercedes was seized from Andheri resident Santosh Talpade.
Sawant said: “We are investigating how the cars that Rajput had bought taking the loans ended up with the various individuals. We are checking if they were in anyway involved or were victims.”
A police source said, “Several big names could come forth soon. Rajput has all along been dropping names of top politicians and influential people. Investigations are on to find out if any of them were beneficiaries.”
The police said that Rajput has not been cooperating in the investigations. A police source said: “He is attempting to mislead us and at times even warns us of consequences. It is going to be a tough job to get things out from him.”