₹7cr case against duo for promising uranium, gems

Mumbai:

The city economic offences wing (EOW) has registered a Rs 7-crore cheating case against two directors of Varun Industries Ltd for luring investors, promising 15% annual interest on deposits. The accused told investors they would get uranium and diamonds from mines in Madagascar and their money would be invested in the project. Kiran Kumar Mehta and Kailash Agarwal, directors of Varun Industries, are among the biggest wilful defaulters in the country, owing banks and other lenders about Rs 2,500 crore.


An EOW officer said Dilip Kumar Nagpal (56), a financial consultant with Aatmaram Ramchandra Financial Broking, lodged a complaint that he and several others had invested around Rs 7 crore with Varun Industries and Varun Jewels Pvt Ltd. “The complainant had invested Rs 47 lakh. The investors deposited money in 2010 and received interest till 2013. The accused then shut down their office at Byculla,” said an officer. Cheques issued by the accused bounced too. They approached the civil court and by then Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against the accused and attached their properties. The victims then approached the city EOW.

CBI, which had registered a case against Agarwal and Mehta for defaulting on payments to a consortium of banks, had on August 5, 2017, arrested Agarwal soon after he arrived at the airport from Dubai. He was subsequently released on bail. Agarwal was on a list of top 10 wilful defaulters in the country. Agarwal and Mehta had fled India after defaulting on payments. In the CBI case, the duo allegedly cheated Chennai-based Indian Bank of Rs 330 crore, besides another Rs 1,593 crore to a consortium of banks led by Indian Bank.

The accused took loans from Indian Bank and other public sector banks from 2007 till 2012. They began defaulting in 2013 and borrowed huge amounts from the market after pledging shares. Indian Bank lodged a complaint with CBI against Varun Industries, Agarwal and Mehta for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery in 2016.