Mumbai: Two booked for duping Iran national of Rs 2.9 crore

Police said that in September 2012, Surk met the two owners of Royal Agro Food Company and placed an order of 12,500 metric tonne of corn grain. The two parties sealed the deal at Rs 22.35 crore. “They promised they would ship the grain by March 2013. Later, they demanded six per cent of total payment in order to ship the goods, which I transferred on October 31 and November 13, 2012,” he said.

In February 2013, the two suspects demanded more money to ship the goods and Surk transferred another Rs 1.63 crore. “By then, he had transferred Rs 2.9 crore,” said an officer from Dadar police station. “In 2014, the company shipped 487 metric tonne of corn grain, worth Rs 85.30 lakh. Later, when they stopped taking calls from the complainant, he flew down to Mumbai and requested them to ship the rest of the order but to no avail,” said the officer.

The complainant then approached the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, which gave a decision in his favour. “The tribunal ordered the owners of Royal Agro Food company to sell the goods and return money to Surk,” said the officer.

“Following this, the two owners kept promising they would return the money. As they failed to do so, Surk approached the Iranian Embassy. He then approached the Economic Offence Wing of Crime Branch, after which, the matter was taken up by the Dadar police.

Senior Inspector Divakar Shelke of Dadar police said, “We are focusing on collecting evidence against the two accused. Accordingly, we will decide whether to arrest them.”