Probe senior citizen,wife in cheating case: Court to cops

Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Umeshchandra More,on Thursday ordered Swargate police to conduct inquiry against a senior citizen Girish Lalchand Shah (60) and his wife Pornima following a private complaint of cheating filed against the couple by a 48-year-old widow.

Bindu Gurdeep Singh,widow of a merchant navy officer had lodged the private complaint in the magistrate court alleging that Shah duped her of Rs 15 lakh after gaining her confidence as an astrologer,which was her subject of interest. According to the complaint,Shah was known to Singh for the past 8-10 years. After her husband’s death in 1992 because of cancer,Singh -a banker,became deeply interested in Astrology and started consulting Shah. In early 2008 Shah called her with the request of lending him hand loan of Rs 50,000 and promised to return it in a fortnight. He returned the money by cheque in the stipulated time and thereafter many more transactions were made by the two,in which he used to return the money as promised. Shah then asked Singh for Rs 15 lakh. When she told him that he couldn’t give them the huge amount,he told her to pay him as smaller amounts from time to time. “He kept telling me that there is no indication of loss of money in my horoscope and need not worry about it. Since he had repaid me earlier,I gave him Rs 14.5 lakh,” she said.

Shah issues her six cheques of variable amounts consolidating to Rs 14.5 lakh. “However,these cheques dated between November 2008 and March 2009 got bounced. I then filed a cheque-bounce complaint under section 138 of negotiable instruments Act,which is pending in the court,” Singh said.

Later,in March 2009,Shah opened an account in Sangli Urban Cooperative Bank,where the complainant works and told her that he was to receive Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh from two of his friends,after which he shall return the money. He gave her two withdrawal slips against the two cheques,but they too bounced with the remark ‘account closed’. Since she worked in the same bank,Singh found that both the cheques belonged the accused,and not his friends,as he had claimed. Moreover,she also found that Shah had forged the signatures of his friends to make it appear as the cheques were issued by the friends and not him.

According to her,the accused went absconding and she realised that they had no intention of repaying the money. Singh registered a private complaint with the court in May last year through her lawyer Vijay Kale. On Thursday,the court ordered the Swargate police for enquiry under section 202 (1) of Criminal Procedure Code. The next hearing is scheduled on August 2.