Man held for duping 12 people of RS25L with bogus scheme

The Amboli police recently arrested a 30-year-old graduate for allegedly duping 12 people of Rs25 lakh.

A source from the police station said the accused, Pravin Shukla, is a resident of Mira Road.

In September 2016, he started a company called Charu Motors and managed to attract investors.

He convinced people to buy cars and give them to him so that he could rent them out their behalf.

He persuaded his investors to pay 30% of the car’s price as a down payment and promised to take bank loans to fund the rest of the scheme.

Shukla also said he would give the owners a monthly commission for renting out their cars. However, after collecting the money, neither did Shukla buy cars nor did he return their money.

The incident came to light after 12 of the investors approached the police.

“Shukla asked investors to pay for 30% of the car’s price to him as down payment. After taking the money he promised to buy the car in their name by taking loans. He even promised to pay the EMI and give the investors Rs25,000 a month for four years for allowing him to rent out the cars,” said an officer from Amboli police station.

Shukla told his investors that he would buy cars such as Ertiga and Swift Dzire.

However, when he failed to give them their money and the cars, investors from Mazgaon, Jogeshwari and Matunga approached the Amboli police station.

An FIR was registered for criminal breach of trust and cheating.

Shukla was arrested and remanded in police custody till Saturday by a magistrate’s court.

The Amboli police froze his bank account but found only a few thousand rupees in it.

They have frozen another bank account and are in the process of determining how much money it contains.