A 36-year-old diamond trader had registered a complaint at Dahisar police station alleging that he, along with his another associate, was duped of Rs77 lakhs by a diamond merchant who claimed to sell the raw diamond and fetch them a good price of the same. The complainant identified as Digesh Kotia has told the police that the accused Pankaj Shah had conned many other people within the diamond market by using the same flattering modus operandi.
According to the police, Kotia runs a diamond polishing shop at Dahisar east and is associated with the diamond business since 2008. Kotia who purchases the raw diamond from Surat in Gujarat after paying proper Goods and Services Tax (GST), polishes them at his shop and later sells the finished product at the diamond markets of Malad and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) respectively. Kotia who knew Shah since a year initially gave 39.86 carats of diamond in November 2018 and Shah after selling them gave him total 10.25 lakhs as promised.
At the second instance, Shah was given 11.12 carats of diamonds and he gave the profit amount to Kotia. Total seven such transactions took place between the duo out of which Shah paid for only the above two deals.
"Shah used to take the diamond claiming that he shall get buyers who shall purchase it at a very profitable rate. Since the diamond market runs on trust, Shah first gained the confidence of Kotia and later took undue advantage of it. Kotia had given total 133.66 carats of diamonds worth Rs 42.79 lakhs and his associate Kantibhai Padsala had given 89.45 carats worth Rs 34.33 lakhs. Whenever the duo asked about the progress of the deal, Shah came up with different excuses and would ask to buy more time saying that since there is no demand, there are no buyers ready to turn up," said a police officer.
Kotia and Padsala later discovered that Shah's address turned out to be fake and also he had turned off his mobile phone to avoid falling into trap. After being convinced that they were duped, Kotia lodged a police complaint on Saturday. " A case has been registered under section 34 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Total amount of Rs 77,13,100 has been misappropriated in the matter. The case is being investigated and we are ascertaining how many more diamond traders have been conned like such," the officer added.
