A contempt petition has been admitted in the high court on Tuesday against a multi-millionaire husband-wife couple who had given a promise in writing, made before the high court, to return Rs 12 crore to one of their victims, but violated the terms of the undertaking. The Asian Age in May this year had reported how the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police arrested the couple for duping their victims to the tune of Rs 40 crore.
The couple had taken huge contracts from Indian Railways for their catering service on Express trains like Shatabdi Express for close to two decades. They allegedly duped at least six victims to the tune of Rs 13 crore. While EOW believe they have duped people to the tune of Rs 40 crore, victims said they might have duped investors to the tune of Rs 100 crore. The couple’s company is one of the biggest contractors that takes work from Indian Railways across India.
The accused, Arunkumar Agarwal, (54) and his wife Sunita (50) are the directors of Sun Shine caterers Pvt Ltd which took contracts from Railways. They never took money in name of the company, but through their personal bank accounts or in cash. An FIR was registered against them in December last year for cheating and criminal breach of trust.
One of their victims, Pankaj Bansal, filed the contempt petition in HC after the duo failed to keep their promise made before the high court. Mr Bansal said, “On June 18 this year they had given an undertaking to pay me Rs 50 lakh per month and in 12 months they were supposed to return the entire Rs 12 crore even if they had to sell their property. They haven’t paid me Rs 50 lakh every month. I learnt that they have given an undertaking to another victim that they would sell the same property to given them their money, which is cheating the high court.” His lawyer Sujay Kantawala said, “Contempt of high court with intent must not go unpunished.”
In around five years, the couple’s modus operandi was to lie to their investors that they had bagged big contracts from railways. On this pretext they got people to invest huge amounts, promising 40-50 per cent returns. They fooled victims by signing a memoranda of understanding, but never used to register them.
