Cracking The Case: How shahi paneer, naan led cops to forgery accused couple in Goa
Five orders later, police finally reached Aunty ki Rasoi, a cloud kitchen, and arrested a couple who had been absconding for the last four years for allegedly cheating an NBFC of Rs 4.11 crore in New Delhi.
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The couple is currently in judicial custody and the chargesheet in the matter has been filed.Shahi paneer, naan, deluxe thali: Last August, for five hours straight, a team of Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing that was camping at a hotel in North Goa continued ordering meals from different outlets in the vicinity. The order was enormous for a team of six personnel, and the cuisine was also peculiar – exclusively North Indian fare for a state known for its coastal cuisine. There was another unique thing about the orders: They were all bought only from restaurants with the word “Rasoi” or kitchen in their name, and the delivery was made not through any online food delivery application but directly from restaurants.
Five orders later, police finally reached Aunty ki Rasoi, a cloud kitchen, and arrested a couple who had been absconding for the last four years for allegedly cheating an NBFC of Rs 4.11 crore in New Delhi.
On the hunt for the couple, Vikas Shandilya, 48, and Meenakshi, 43, the police got a tip-off that the duo had been staying at an upscale locality in North Goa, and was running a North Indian food joint with the word Rasoi affixed somewhere in its name.
Said a senior police officer who was part of the team, “For every order, a police officer followed the delivery person back to the restaurant to ascertain if it was indeed the accused couple’s food joint. After four hit-and-trial orders, in the fifth order, we finally managed to trace the couple after following the delivery guy…their outlet, Aunty ki Rasoi, was situated around 4 kms from our hotel.”
Officers said that Sewaa Apparels, a firm belonging to the couple, had applied for a loan from an NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) against a property worth Rs 5 crore. A loan amounting to Rs 4.11 crore was sanctioned on August 31, 2017 wherein the company was the borrower. Vikas’s brother Gaurav along with Meenakshi, and her mother – partners in the firm —were named the co-borrowers.
“The loan was taken against the equitable mortgage of a property located in Roop Nagar…however, later there were regular defaults in repayment of EMIs of the loans. After an onsite visit by the complainant company’s team, it was revealed that ownership documents as well as particulars of borrowers were false, forged and manipulated,” said an officer. The complainant NBFC ended up suffering a loss of several crores of rupees.
A case of cheating and forgery was lodged against the couple.
During investigation, it was found that the property documents submitted by Vikas’ mother-in-law were forged and that she had already sold the property to a buyer. “It was also revealed that the documents submitted by Gaurav and Meenakshi were forged and they had put in fake signatures on the loan documents as well as in the account-opening form of the bank where the loan amount was received and later siphoned off,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Sindhu Pillai A.
It was later revealed during probe that Gaurav Sharma was not even Vikas’s brother.
Said an officer, “The team camped in Goa for 10 days as initially, all the technical surveillance mounted was to no avail as the restaurant of the accused persons was difficult to trace. The couple were living in a posh locality of North Goa, Porvorim, after changing their identities and appearance.”
The couple graduated from Delhi University and was briefly engaged in apparel business. “In 2017, they came in contact with Sharma and along with Vikas’s mother, hatched a conspiracy to cheat the NBFC,” said police. They went absconding in 2019 fearing police arrest.
The couple is currently in judicial custody and the chargesheet in the matter has been filed.
The case is currently under trial in court.
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