Police arrest diamond firm director in Nepean House fraud

The Malabar Hill police have arrested the director of a diamond trading company on the charge of forging documents to try and take over Nepean House in Malabar Hill from its owner in collusion with three other company directors On November 4 the police arrested Hemant Dayalal Bhatt codirector of Firestar Diamond International Pvt Ltd the firm in the name of which the bungalow which has a market value of Rs 300 crore was rented Main accused Neerav Modi said he has obtained anticipatory bail from court He was produced in Girgaum court where the judge remanded him in police custody till today The cops are now investigating the main accused citybased diamond merchant Neerav Modi The duo allegedly made a fake agreement in a bid to capture the bungalow after renting it from its owner a senior citizen ldquoWe have arrested Bhatt under sections 465 forgery 467 forgery of valuable security 468 forgery for purpose of cheating 471 using as genuine a forged document 420 cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property 452 house trespass with preparation for hurt assault or wrongful restraint and 34 acts done by several people for a common intention of the IPCrdquo said Sanjay Naik investigation officer The fraud According to the police in 2002 the house which belonged to erstwhile governor of Bombay Sir Evan Nepean was occupied by an 86yearold Parsi woman Najoo Bhiwandiwala In 2007 she sold it to Surendra Agarwal a top diamond businessman who now lives in the house with his family But Bhiwandiwala and Agarwal came to know that Modi had forged some documents claiming that Bhiwandiwala had agreed that she would sell the house to him at a future date Modi in fact had taken a part of the bungalow on leaveandlicence basis for five years In June 2004 on the pretext of renovation he moved antique goods and furniture worth of Rs 1 crore from the house and claimed that he had handed over the moveable property to his maid Indu Monde Later in her statements copies with MiD DAY Monde denied that Modi had given her any assets It was also revealed that Modi used fake stamp papers copy with MiD DAY to make the leaveandlicence agreement ldquoModi forged all the documents taking advantage of the womanrsquos old age The police have arrested his colleague Now Modi will soon be behind barsrdquo said Agarwal Agarwal on behalf of Bhiwandiwala approached the Malabar Hill police to file an FIR against Modi but the cops refused Agarwal then approached the Girgaum court after which on June 9 2008 the police registered an MECR magisterial enquiry court register which is equal to an FIR against Bhatt Modi and his parents Pragya and Deepak who are also codirectors in the firm Surprisingly the police filed a Csummary report stating that it was a civil matter The police filed the report thrice Now the court for a fourth time has ordered further investigations in the matter In the long legal battle last week the police started investigations again and arrested Bhatt Who was Nepean Nepeansea Road is named after British politician and administrator Sir Evan Nepean first baronet who was the governor of Bombay during 18121819 He owned the Nepean House located near what is now the chief ministerrsquos bungalow in Malabar Hill The cost of the bungalow today is more than Rs 300 crore The other side ldquoI have got anticipatory bail from the high court The court has also given police protection to merdquo said Neerav Modiu00a0