257 people conned of Rs 80 crore
Owner of a travel firm promised its clients brand new cars for Rs 1.4 lakh each but he made off with all the money
- Nilesh Nikade and Ruhi Khan, Mumbai Mirror
The Thane magistrate court has ordered an inquiry into a case of fraud involving the owner of a travel company and six others who made off with about Rs 80 crore invested by 257-odd people in a car scheme launched by the firm.
The court ordered Mira Road police to investigate the case against the owner of Gurudev Travel Connexion (GTC), Sandip Kandalkar, and six others following the complaints filed by a Vilas Sawant and a Shailesh Joshi, both travel agents and the agents in the scheme.
The victims had invested around 1.4 lakh each in the scheme launched by the GTC in return for cars and a monthly rental of Rs 20,000 on each of the vehicles for over three years.
Vilas Sawant, owner of Omkar Tours and Travels in Mira Road said: “Under the schemes launched by the GTC, a client had to make a downpayment of Rs 1.4 lakh to purchase a Tata Indigo LX on instalment, out of which Rs 30,000 was taken as service charge by the company. The car was then leased out to the GTC on a monthly rental of Rs 20,000 for three years, which could have helped the client pay off his EMI of Rs 9,000 and earn Rs 11,000 per month.
“After three years, the company had also promised the ownership of the car, without paying any maintenance for fuel charges for three years.”
The GTC was also offering similar schemes for Indigo and Mahindra Scorpio at the payment of Rs1.5 lakh and Rs 3.3 lakh, respectively.
The GTC owner, Sandip, who had leased a bungalow owned by singer Sonu Nigam in Andheri’s Char Rasta area and used to drive around in a Mercedes with private bodyguards, persuaded people to invest in the schemes through the two agents, Vilas Sawant and Shailesh Joshi.
The agents were getting Rs 2,000 per client and till April 2006 Sawant got over 250 clients to join the scheme.
“From April, the monthly rentals to clients started getting delayed and we were told by Sandip that it was because his investment in two movies had caused him losses. He requested us to pay the rentals to the clients for the next few months. But in September, when we could not continue paying the clients, he issued us cheques amounting to Rs 3.1 crore to pay off the customers,” said Shailesh, who had brought seven customers.
A police official said that when the cheques bounced, Sandip promised to pay his agents in cash. “But he locked his office and bungalow and ran away. We raided his bungalow in Goa, too, but he had managed to escape from there,” he added.
The economic offences wing of Mumbai police has already registered case against Sandip and has arrested two people from his team under section 406, 420 and 34 of the IPC.
- Nilesh Nikade and Ruhi Khan, Mumbai Mirror
The Thane magistrate court has ordered an inquiry into a case of fraud involving the owner of a travel company and six others who made off with about Rs 80 crore invested by 257-odd people in a car scheme launched by the firm.
The court ordered Mira Road police to investigate the case against the owner of Gurudev Travel Connexion (GTC), Sandip Kandalkar, and six others following the complaints filed by a Vilas Sawant and a Shailesh Joshi, both travel agents and the agents in the scheme.
The victims had invested around 1.4 lakh each in the scheme launched by the GTC in return for cars and a monthly rental of Rs 20,000 on each of the vehicles for over three years.
Vilas Sawant, owner of Omkar Tours and Travels in Mira Road said: “Under the schemes launched by the GTC, a client had to make a downpayment of Rs 1.4 lakh to purchase a Tata Indigo LX on instalment, out of which Rs 30,000 was taken as service charge by the company. The car was then leased out to the GTC on a monthly rental of Rs 20,000 for three years, which could have helped the client pay off his EMI of Rs 9,000 and earn Rs 11,000 per month.
“After three years, the company had also promised the ownership of the car, without paying any maintenance for fuel charges for three years.”
The GTC was also offering similar schemes for Indigo and Mahindra Scorpio at the payment of Rs1.5 lakh and Rs 3.3 lakh, respectively.
The GTC owner, Sandip, who had leased a bungalow owned by singer Sonu Nigam in Andheri’s Char Rasta area and used to drive around in a Mercedes with private bodyguards, persuaded people to invest in the schemes through the two agents, Vilas Sawant and Shailesh Joshi.
The agents were getting Rs 2,000 per client and till April 2006 Sawant got over 250 clients to join the scheme.
“From April, the monthly rentals to clients started getting delayed and we were told by Sandip that it was because his investment in two movies had caused him losses. He requested us to pay the rentals to the clients for the next few months. But in September, when we could not continue paying the clients, he issued us cheques amounting to Rs 3.1 crore to pay off the customers,” said Shailesh, who had brought seven customers.
A police official said that when the cheques bounced, Sandip promised to pay his agents in cash. “But he locked his office and bungalow and ran away. We raided his bungalow in Goa, too, but he had managed to escape from there,” he added.
The economic offences wing of Mumbai police has already registered case against Sandip and has arrested two people from his team under section 406, 420 and 34 of the IPC.
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