Dr Mahendra Wadiwala told Navinchandra Hegde he had found a financier for his floundering business, who turned out to be Ponzi scheme conman Shekhar Chandrashekhar
Navinchandra Hegde, 63, the businessman arrested following investigations into Ponzi scheme accused Shekhar Chandrashekhar’s attempt at threatening the Bombay High Court, has told the police he was lured by suspended senior civic doctor Dr Mahendra Wadiwala with a false story.
Dr Mahendra Wadiwala
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Hegde told interrogators that in 2014, when his Octomac Engineering Company Ltd was having financial problems, he was looking for investors. It was during this time that he met Dr Wadiwala at Bhabha Hospital.
“Hegde told the police that Dr Wadiwala had, over the phone, introduced him to one Delhi-based financier Mr Joshi [first name not known], who had a property business in Dubai. Dr Wadiwala told Hegde he could get an investment of Rs 300 crore for Hegde’s company from Joshi, who was also financing Dr Wadiwala’s Mahi International Trading Company,” a police officer said.
Dr Wadiwala then asked for a hefty commission for arranging for a financier, the officer said, as well as for getting Chandrashekhar to later impersonate the secretary of a cabinet minister and call up the HC to put pressure on the court receiver to stall proceedings against Hegde in an arbitration matter. Hegde told the police that Dr Wadiwala never allowed him to meet Joshi in person. Contact would always be made via a conference call. To ensure that he came across as authentic, Dr Wadiwala, on April 6, took Hegde along with him to Delhi to meet Joshi and later, in Delhi, told him that Joshi had gone to Patna.
The police probe found that Joshi was none other than conman Chandrashekhar, who had been speaking to Hegde as Joshi. Interestingly, Chandrashekhar’s phone number was used to book air tickets for Hegde and Dr Wadiwala.
The police probe also revealed that after making threat calls to HC, Chandrashekhar called up Dr Wadiwala to inform him that the work was done.
Last week, when Wadiwala was detained by the police following revelations of his connections with Chandrashekhar, he tried to put pressure on the police to prevent his arrest. An IPS officer received a call from a BJP MP for the same, but it didn’t work and the police arrested Dr Wadiwala on Saturday from his residence.
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