Court acquits six in 8-yr-old fraud case

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Advertisement

Chandigarh, August 18

Disposing an eight-year-old cheating case, a local court today acquitted all six persons accused, namely Inderpreet Singh, Rajiv Kumar Arora, Rajat Chhabra, Amit Malhotra, Kuldeep Singh and Rakesh Kumar.

The Chandigarh Police had registered an FIR in 2015 following a complaint by a local businessman, Rajinder Kumar Thakur. He had accused the six of duping him of Rs 52 lakh.

Duped of Rs 52 lakh

• One of the accused — Inderpreet Singh, a property dealer — had allegedly told the complainant, Rajinder Thakur, that one of his friends owned an antique item made of some precious metals
• Thakur was told that he could make a killing by investing in the prized item. He signed an MoU with a company and shelled out Rs 52 lakh

In his complaint, Thakur alleged that one of the accused — Inderpreet Singh, a property dealer — had told him that one of his friends owned an antique item made of some precious metals that was valued at thousands of crores of rupees in the international market.

Inderpreet later introduced Thakur to Kuldeep as an employee of a Delhi-based company that dealt in antique items.

Thakur was told that he could make a killing by investing in the prized item. He was assured that the company would purchase the antique item, but only after a test to ascertain its authenticity. He was then made to sign an MoU with the company, to which he paid Rs 52 lakh. Thakur later realised that he had been duped. The matter was investigated by the police and a chargesheet was filed.

Munish Dewan, the counsel for the accused, rubbished the allegations, terming them ‘absurd’. The prosecution, however, insisted that the six accused had duped the complainant. The court ruled that no case was made against the accused.