A city-based businessman was booked on Thursday for allegedly duping a diamond merchant from Bengaluru by replacing his 11.02-carat diamond worth ₹90 lakh with fake stones.
The DB Marg police officials registered the case following a complaint filed by Raghavendra Chalapati, 36, a diamond trader from Bengaluru. “As part of his business, he met one of the accused Mohammad A Abdul Karim Zafar, a native of Chennai. Chalapati told Zafar to search for potential buyers to whom he could sell 11.02-carat diamonds. Zafar said there is a broker in Chennai, identified as Dilip, who knows a businessman in Mumbai who is interested in buying the diamonds and is willing to pay ₹6 crore for the diamonds which are worth ₹90 lakh,” said a police officer.
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Accordingly, Chalapati reached Mumbai last month and met Zafar and Dilip who took him to the Panchratna Building at Opera House in Charni Road.
“They initially got the diamond checked in Zaveri Bazaar and obtained an authenticity certificate. Later, Zafar and Dilip took Chalapati to the Panchratna Building where they met Kunal Mehta who checked the diamond and asked them to come the next day, as it was too late in the day for finalising the deal,” said the police officer.
As decided, the next day Chalapati went to meet Mehta who told him that he was ready to buy the diamond for ₹6 crore and took the diamond to another cabin to show it to a person waiting inside.
“When he came back, he brought the diamond packed in a sealed zip-lock bag and told Chalapati to renegotiate the price. Mehta asked Chalapati to go down and think about his offer and return to finalise the offer. He said he will pay the money via hawala through Angadias. When Chalapati came down, he decided to check the diamond again and realised that Mehta had replaced the original diamond with a fake one,” said the police officer.
When he went up, he noticed that Mehta’s office was closed and neither Zafar and Dilip had Mehta’s contact numbers. Finally, Chalapati got his contact number, but Mehta kept disconnecting the calls.
However, Mehta finally met the complainant and accepted that he had sealed the diamond but claimed that the diamond was replaced after he returned back to him and he was not responsible for flicking the precious stone. The complainant then realised he was cheated and approached us. We have registered a case under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code against Mehta and will soon track him said the police officer.
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