Sharjah trader cheats Vadodara bizman of Rs 38 lakh

Vadodara: Waghodiya police on Tuesday booked one Lal Gurnani, a trader from United Arab Emirates, for cheating a city-based manufacturer of copper rods, Viral Shah, of Rs 37.6 lakh in March last year.
Shah had lodged a complaint against Gurnani with the cops alleging that the latter visited his company – Finalco India – at Kamrol village in Waghodiya taluka, introducing himself as a trader who sells copper rods and would like to procure goods from Shah’s factory. Gurnani claimed he owns a shop named Mohammed Jabar Electric and Hardware in Sharjah. Shah checked his licence and documents and sent three consignments of goods from Mundra port in June, August and December last year.

Stating that the export orders were worth Rs 37.6 lakh, Shah also informed the police that the duo made an agreement to make the payment within 120 days. As per the agreement Shah asked Gurnani to make payment after 120 days, but the latter asked for more time. When the payment was still not done, Shah called him on his phone number, which turned out to switched off. Later all mails, SMS and WhatsApp messages that Shah sent to Gurnani too went unresponded. Shah then got Gurnani’s whereabouts checked through local sources and found that he had shut his business and fled the area. Police said that Gurnani was running his business from a rented shop. A police official said that they will also check the accused’s native place in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh. “The complainant had a copy of the accused’s passport and on basis of that we have initiated our probe,” cops said.