Businessman held for cheating IT firm of ` 38L

MUMBAI: A businessman, Rajiv Ashok Ahuja, 40, owner of VSP International Enterprises, Mumbai, has been arrested by Oshiwara Police for duping Amtrex Private Limited, an information technology firm, to the tune of Rs 38 lakh. Ahuja has been arrested for cheating (Section 419), cheating (Section 420) and using a forged document as genuine (Section 471) of the IPC. According to SPI Subhash Khanvilkar, Oshiwara police station, "A Look-Out Circular (LOC) was issued against Rajiv Ashok Ahuja. He was arrested from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Thursday and was produced before the court on the same day who is now remanded in police custody until June 18." "Ahuja had a modus operandi of approaching IT firms stating that he had received large order of data entry work. He approached companies stating that he wanted partners to out-source the work. He would sign agreements and then delay payments and would issue dishonoured cheques. The same modus operandi was used to cheat Amtrex. He was running a call centre in Malaysia, "said the officer. In 2011, Ahuja was arrested by the Pune crime branch for duping IT solution firms by promising huge returns through data entry works. Shailendra Pathak, a proprietor of Quadrabriz Technology and Consulting Solutions Private Limited, had registered a complaint with Kothrud Police for being duped by Ahuja to the tune of Rs 34.94 lakh. Ahuja has duped IT firms in Mumbai, Nashik, Solapur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Raipur, Satara and Chhattisgarh. He has been operating the racket along with his accomplices Raj Naik, BD Boolani, Vikrant Singh, Nirmal Jogh and Sumeet Sharma. The accused were operating under the pan name of Millennium Trade links at Bangalore.