Mumbai: JAWA bike dealer shuts shop without delivery

K K Motors in Bandra West

The Bandra police have filed a case against K K Motors - an authorised dealer of Mahindra's JAWA Yezdi bikes - for fraudulent activities against more than 10 customers. The dealership abruptly closed its doors and the owners absconded with Rs 20 lakh without delivering the purchased bikes. Meanwhile, customers were given various excuses, including damage to the ordered bikes in the showroom and the owner being hospitalised, before the dealership ceased operations.

K K Motors operated from B-264, ground floor, 30th Road at TPS Lane in Bandra West. The individuals running the authorised showroom have been identified as Gaurav alias Rohan Nagda, Dipesh Nagda, and Deepa Nagda. They have been booked by the Bandra police, who suspect this is a huge scam and have urged victims to come forward.

Rakesh Mishra lost Rs 2.42 lakh

According to the police, the showroom shut its doors in mid-July, after which they saw a surge of complaints at the Bandra police station. Although the complaints were received in July, an FIR was officially registered on September 2.

One of the complainants, Bandra resident Siddharth Menon who works in advertising shared his experience, stating, "On March 19, I visited KK Motors to purchase a JAWA Yezdi adventure bike for which I also took out a loan. The dealer promised to deliver the bike within 15 days. I paid Rs 2.34 lakh to the dealership, but my bike was never delivered. The dealer gave multiple excuses, including bike damage and company delays of 2-3 days. But when I visited the showroom in mid-July, it was closed." According to Menon, the dealer also stopped responding to his calls and he finally filed a complaint with the Bandra police on July 22. However, the police informed him that they were identifying more victims before registering a case.

Another victim, Rakesh Mishra - a specialist dentist and a resident of Juhu - shared his ordeal, saying, "I wanted to buy a JAWA Yezdi bike and initially visited a showroom in Juhu. However, the colour I wanted was not available so I went to K K Motors in Bandra West. I took a test drive and decided to make a purchase. The dealer asked for R1.5 lakh as booking amount and I initially paid Rs 94,000. The dealer repeatedly demanded the remaining amount, amounting to Rs 2.42 lakh, which I paid. I was promised the bike would be delivered by July 14." According to Mishra, after making a number of calls to the dealer he was informed that his bike was damaged in the showroom and that a new one had been ordered, which would take 4-5 days to arrive. Later, he was told that the dealership owner had been hospitalised. "Finally, they promised delivery on August 2, but when I did a search on Google, I found that the dealership had been permanently closed. Customer care confirmed that they had terminated the dealership."

Numerous other complainants, including Vighnesh Ramakant Gorule who lost Rs 2.88 lakh, Ramchandra Sangodkar (Rs 2.40 lakh), Jason Barrette (John Montu Fernandez, 2.34 lakhs rupees), Soheb Hasan Shaikh (Rs 15,000 for accessories), Yash Bhawani (Rs 2.64 lakh), Vijay Waghmare (Rs 1.90 lakh), Swapnil Jadhav (Rs 1.85 lakh) and Varsha Kharade (Rs 2.12 lakh) were also defrauded. These incidents of fraud occurred between March and the end of July.

Siddharth Menon

Senior Inspector Sanjay Marathe of the Bandra police station confirmed, "We have registered an FIR under Sections 420 and 406 of the Indian Penal Code against Gaurav alias Rohan, Dipesh, and Deepa, but no arrests have been made so far."

JAWA Motors' regional head, Deepak Saxena, said, "Our legal team is working on it. I can't say any more on this."