Chargesheet filed in Rs 1.84-cr cheating case

Jammu, December 20

The Economic Offences Wing–Crime Branch Jammu has filed a chargesheet against an accused for cheating and criminal breach of trust in delivery of charcoal and duping the complainant of an amount of Rs 1.84 crore.

The chargesheet was produced against the accused S Tharagaval, proprietor, New MMS and Sons, a resident of Tamil Nadu, in the court.

A written complaint was lodged by Tapan Dubey, director, Shree Sita Ram Industries Pvt. Ltd., SIDCO Industrial Complex, Bari Brahmana Jammu, alleging that he had placed an order with the accused person for the supply of charcoal, valuing Rs 1.04 crore with the commitment of excluding freight charges and paid half of the amount to the accused.

Thereafter, the accused again approached the complainant and demanded hike in the settled rate, which was accepted by the complainant having no other option and accordingly the complainant paid an amount of Rs 1.45 crore to the accused but despite waiting for a long time the accused failed to deliver the material.

Later, the accused partially delivered the material in the month of August 2012 through goods train for which an amount of Rs 39.79 lakh was paid by the complainant as freight charges. However, on unloading of the material from the train, the complainant was shocked to see that instead of charcoal, mud, sand and dust was supplied by the accused.

“On receipt of the complaint, a preliminary verification was initiated and during the course of enquiry, it was found that the material supplied by the accused was actually mud, sand and dust and not charcoal for which the complainant had paid a huge amount of money and that the accused with malafide intentions by alluring the complainant through fraudulent means had cheated the complainant of his hard earned money amounting to Rs 1.84 crore. Accordingly, allegations were prima facie substantiated, leading to the registration of formal case for indepth investigation,” an official said.

He said that during the course of investigation, relevant record was seized, statements of witnesses recorded, scientific, circumstantial and other material evidence was collected and offences under Ranbir Penal Code (RPC now IPC) were established against the accused.