Couple held in Rs 5.2-cr con for MLC seats

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch Tuesday arrested a couple for cheating two Pune and Nagpur-based persons to the tune of Rs 5.2 crore after promising them MLC seats through an agent last year

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch Tuesday arrested a couple for cheating two Pune and Nagpur-based persons to the tune of Rs 5.2 crore after promising them MLC seats through an agent last year.

The agent,Manoj Tiwari,has claimed in his complaint that the couple and an accomplice had even taken him to Delhi and got him to meet senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel,who is political secretary to party chief Sonia Gandhi.

Tiwari has claimed he trusted the accomplice,Hitesh Zhaveri,and gave him the cash after meeting Patel. But Congress sources in Delhi said Patel didnt know any of these people and had not met any of them.

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The police too said they needed to verify Tiwaris claims.

Crime branch officers said Tiwari,a Congress member and a liaison agent,had filed a case at the Juhu police station a week ago after they refused to return Tiwari the money he had given them on behalf of the Pune and Nagpur businessmen.

Tiwari has claimed he had met Zhaveri at a Juhu gymnasium in 2011. Zhaveri allegedly said he knew top Congress leaders in Delhi. In 2012,two businessmen friends of Tiwari from Pune and Nagpur allegedly asked him to buy MLC tickets. The police said Tiwari approached Zhaveri who introduced him to the couple chartered accountant Jigna Shah and her husband Parag Shah who also claimed to have contacts in the Congress.

Tiwari said since he met Patel,he trusted Zhaveri. Until April,there was no assurance to get tickets and then he started demanding the money back. He got some back,but is yet to get the remaining amount, said a crime branch officer said.