Mumbai: A week later, FIR against broker who swindled jewellers of Rs 7.5 cr

Mehul Zaveri

The BKC police station filed an FIR against Mehul Zaveri, a diamond broker from Juhu, who is accused of embezzling Rs 7.50 crore from Mumbai-based jewellers. The complaint was lodged a week after the jewellers reported the incident. Simultaneously, a jeweller in Delhi lodged a complaint with the Karol Bagh police station against Mehul Zaveri, and the local authorities are waiting for Mumbai police's response before taking further action. A source revealed, "Mehul reportedly deceived the jeweller in Delhi by gaining trust and acquiring diamonds valued at Rs 5 crore. Subsequently, he went incommunicado, leaving the jeweller in distress.

"The jewellers were hesitant to approach the police station as he is a well-known broker and his father is also in the same business. They were in a state of shock, as he had committed fraud. However, when his phone was switched off, the family claimed that they were unaware of Mehul's whereabouts, they came forward to record statements," the source added.

"We recorded statements of over 20 jewellers and then registered an FIR against Mehul Zaveri. We are making all the efforts to apprehend him. We suspect the amount of the alleged fraud would increase gradually through the course of investigation," said a police officer "Many jewellers then approached us and after recording the statement of the jewellers and scrutinising the documents, we registered an FIR on February 14," the police officer added.

According to the police, Zaveri used to approach various jewellery shops across the city and dupe diamonds under the pretext of showing them to the clients. Zaveri has been booked under section 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

20
No of jewellers whose statements were recorded