Accused nabbed after 23 years

The city crime branch has arrested 53-year-old accused, 23 years after a detention order under sections of COFEPOSA Act was issued against him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a tax evasion case of Rs 130 crore against Harish Bhavsar an importer of raw diamonds and issued his detention order in 1997, however, ever since the order was issued Bhavsar went into hiding and remained at large.

The Crime Branch unit 1, received a tip-off that Bhavsar, was hiding in Girgaon since a long time. After due verification, the accused was held on Tuesday. He has been handed over to preventive branch of the Mumbai police to be handed over to the ED officials.

According to the crime branch, since 1997 Bhavsar changed his identities multiple times to avoid arrest,

Bhavasar aka Harikrushna Bhavasar alias Paresh Zaveri alias Bobby, for the first four years he remained in Delhi and then returned back to Mumbai. In Mumbai he kept changing his locations and hardly contacted his family for quite a long time. To remain out of the radar of the cops, he maintained a low profile and never married, said an official. Multiples economic offences and investments frauds have been registered against him, the officer added.

According to the crime branch officer, Bhavasar's company Sharada Diamonds used to import raw diamonds from Singapore. The ED had registered an offence of tax evasion again the Bhavsar after his name surfaced in Rs 130 crore tax evasion case. Following the investigation ED pressed charges under sections of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Act (COFEPOSA) and issued his detention order in 1997.