Mumbai: Car designer and owner of DC Designs Dilip Chhabria, famous for retrofitting luxury vehicles, was arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch on Tuesday. Police have unearthed a scam worth around Rs 40 crore related to fraudulent registrations and financing.
Police have found that nearly 90 DC Avanti supercars made by DC Designs were used by the company posing as customers to procure loans from Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). These loans were not repaid. Each car was priced at Rs 42 lakh.
Such vehicles were also later sold to other customers after availing financing by fraudulent means without the customers’ knowledge.
That was not all. Most of the Avantis were registered twice or thrice at different RTOs of various states. Multiple registrations were used to avail more loans which DC didn’t intend to pay back.
The matter came into light after a man in Tamil Nadu committed a traffic violation in his DC Avanti. The traffic officer while issuing the challan told him that his vehicle was showing as registered in Haryana as well.
On checking with VAHAN website, he found that his car was indeed registered at two RTOs. He contacted DC Designs who kept evading the issue.
He then went to Mumbai and the Mumbai Police received a tip-off regarding the matter. They took his statement and registered an FIR.
Police are also investing the role of 3-4 NBFCs who gave them these loans and are suspecting the role of employees in the scam.
It has also been found that some of the cars were sold to citizens of other countries at lower value.
