Bombay High Court seeks police reply over note fraud of UK man

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday sought the city police’s response to a petition filed by a UK national seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him for cheating a businessman of Rs 50 lakh after promising him to exchange old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to new ones post-demonetisation.

A division bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and Nutan Sardessai was hearing a petition filed by the accused, Yasin Salya, who sought quashing of the cheating complaint lodged against him by south Mumbai businessman Abubakar Maniyar, claiming that they had amicably resolved the issue.

According to the police, Maniyar had on November 24 approached the suburban Santa Cruz police claiming he was cheated by Salya, who took Rs 50 lakh from him with the promise that he would exchange and give him new notes or deposit the money in his (Maniyar) account.

Pursuant to the complaint, the police went to J W Marriot Hotel where the accused was staying and arrested him. The police also recovered Rs 50 lakh from his room. Salya was later released on bail by a sessions court. Salya, in his petition, claimed both he and the complainant are friends and there had been some misunderstanding regarding the money and hence the case was lodged.

Salya’s advocate Mubin Solkar told the court that the dispute between the parties have been amicably resolved and they have arrived at consent terms also and hence sought for the FIR to be quashed. Additional public prosecutor F.R. Shaikh told the court the police wanted to check the antecedents of the petitioner as he was a UK national.

The bench while directing the police to file its affidavit, said, “Check his antecedents...we want to know what the police has to say. Many more such cases may come before us now.” The court has posted the petition for hearing on December 22.