DC Avanti scam: Dilip Chhabria made suspicious transactions worth crores of rupees in last 5 years

One of the cars seized for investigation

The Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday claimed that car designer and enthusiast Dilip Chhabria had made suspicious transactions worth crores of rupees in the last five years in the name of foreign, expensive vehicles other than the DC Avanti sports car.

Assistant Police Inspector (API) Sachin Vaze of the CIU (Crime Intelligence Unit) said, "CIU conducted a search at Chhabria's factory in Pune on Monday. 14 DC Avanti, 40 engines and 19 other expensive vehicles were found there. All these vehicles were said to have been seized for investigation."

"We seized DC Avanti car without engine-chassis number from Chhabria's factory at MIDC," the Crime Branch officials said.

According to Crime Branch, Chhabria had imported at least 400 engines from Renault to manufacture the sports car. Of these, 200 engines were ordered in the name of DC Design Company and 80 in the name of own company.

According to Sachin Vaze, the investigation so far has revealed details of 68 expensive cars and bikes purchased by Chhabria's DC Design Company. These include Porsche, BMW, Bentley, Maybach, Volvo cars and Indian bikes.

To buy these, the DC Design Company took loans from private financial institutions. "The loan has not been repaid. Also, Chhabria could not provide satisfactory information about the whereabouts of these expensive cars and bikes. Therefore, like DC Avanti, the loan was taken by showing the documentary existence of these 68 cars and bikes," said a senior official of the Crime Branch. He added that the search for all these vehicles is going on.