A man was booked on Friday for allegedly siphoning off ₹73.3 lakh from a Girgaum resident for one and a half years under the pretext of investing money in the share market and getting ‘good’ returns.
The accused was identified as Tejas Ghadigaokar, 36, a resident of Byculla. Ghadigaokar has another case against him in Sindhudurg district, in which he allegedly cheated a person of ₹14 lakh after promising to give him a bungalow in Kankavli, a police officer said.
Currently, Ghadigaonkar is in judicial custody in the Sindhudurg case, and the police will soon hand over his custody to the VP Road police in the cheating case through court, a police officer said.
According to the police, the complainant, Samir Manjrekar, 42, works in a private firm and lives in the Girgaon area along with his family.
Manjrekar alleged in the FIR that he met the accused in 2019 through a common friend. Ghadigaonkar used to run an equity firm, and his office was situated in the Wadala area and worked as a managing director in the firm.
He convinced Manjrekar to invest his money through him in the share market, and he would give him a good return. During the pandemic, Manjrekar started giving the money to Ghadigaonkar. Initially, he got a few returns but later Ghadigaonkar stopped giving him money, Parag Kukarde, assistant police inspector, of VP Road police station, said.
The victim gave a total of ₹80.71 lakh to the accused from 2020 to the end of 2021. Manjrekar borrowed money from his friends and relatives to invest in the share market and gave the accused in multiple instalments. The accused gave him returns of only ₹7.43 lakh and later stopped giving him money, added Kukarde.
The victim contacted Ghadigaonkar many times, but when he lost hope that he would not get his money back, he approached the police and gave a written complaint against him around two months ago. The VP Road police verified the facts, recorded the statement of the victim, and registered a case under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, banker, merchant, or agent) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused on October 20.
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