Mumbai dealer duped of handsets worth Rs35 lakh

An employee of a diamond trading firm was recently arrested for allegedly taking a mobile phone dealer for a ride after making away with BlackBerry phones worth Rs35 lakh.

The complainant has been working as a sales executive for the last 11 years at the Mahendra Brothers Export Pvt Ltd in Panchratna. The firm deals in diamonds and its partners include Milan Parikh and Saunak Parikh.

In the first week of October, Rajesh Ishwar Shendbale, 42, who worked as a private assistant (PA) to Milan Parikh, told the complainant that his boss wanted to gift BB phones to senior government officers for Diwali and asked him to recommend a mobile phone dealer. The complainant then gave him the contact of an associate, Saurabh Zaveri. By October 10, Shendbale purchased 390 BB phones from Zaveri for just Rs5 lakh.

“Zaveri told the complainant that he was yet to receive Rs35 lakh from the company. When Shendbale was asked about it, he went on leave and stopped taking calls from the complainant,” a police officer said.

When the sales executive made inquiries with the Parikhs on October 14, he realised that Shendbale had hoodwinked him. He then registered a police complaint, after which the PA, and associates Subash Narayan Sawant, 42, and Chayandas Duryodhandas, 21, were arrested.

“The entire plan was hatched by Shendbale. He must have sold some phones and given Rs5 lakh to Zaveri so that he continued giving phones to him. Investigations have also revealed that Shendbale had paid a large amount of money to his relatives in Nashik and Bhayander and sold some phones to local businessmen at low costs. Sawant used to get phones from Zaveri on the instance of Shendbale. Duryodhandas, who is believed to have sold around 35 BB phones, had given few phones to his Chennai-based girlfriend. We are in the process of collecting the phones and are investigating further,” the officer said.