Pune Mahadev app bust: Accused duo are ‘childhood friends’, one was booked for fraud in 2022

Bokaria has a fraud complaint against him for cheating Pune based edible oil traders of Rs 8.53 crore in 2021-2022.

‘Childhood friends’

Lalit Bokaria, Raj’s father, told The Indian Express over phone from Junnar that his son and Hritwik were friends since their childhood. Both of them had moved to Pune for higher education where Raj pursued Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA).

Lalit Bokaria and Suresh Kothari, Hritwik’s father, are involved in the business of the manufacturing and selling edible oil. The two families are well-known business families in Junnar and Narayangaon respectively.

“I wasn’t in touch with him at all,” said Lalit over phone. “After the 2022 issue, I stayed away from his activities. What I have learnt is that although he is being made a mastermind by the police, he was a mere employee at the firm. We have suffered heavily over the earlier issue. My wife is unwell and I am busy looking after her,” said Lalit. Suresh Kothari said he was not in a mental position to talk.

On Friday, Pankaj Deshmukh, Superintendent of Police (Pune Rural), said that Bokaria, Kothari, and Mirajkar were on the run and lookout notices have been issued against them. “We will share more information about them only after they are arrested,” said Deshmukh.

2022 case against Bokaria

In 2021-2022, Bokaria was involved in an alleged fraud in which he allegedly cheated some traders dealing in edible oil in Pune Marketyard.

As per the complaint filed by trader Yash Mittal in July 2022, he and other associates in the oil business used to parley with Raj’s father since 2017. In 2019, Raj approached him and others involved in the edible oil trade and informed them that he had formed a firm ‘The Trade Factory’ (based out of Model Colony) and would like to do business with them. Based on the Mittal family’s prior experience with Raj’s father, they entered into transactions with Raj from August 2020. Things worked fine for a year. However, after October 2021, Raj received a total of Rs 8.53 crore from Yash and other associates but never delivered the goods. He kept promising the complainant and others that he would resolve the issue but never did. In July 2022, the complainant learnt that he had gone incommunicado and approached the police with a complaint.

Bokaria later applied for anticipatory bail and has been out since. The case is being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing of Pune Police. Bokaria’s father Lalit maintained that Raj could not fulfill the commitment as he was cheated by some other individuals.