DC Avanti Scam: Dilip Chhabria's firm took loans as customers for cars manufactured by them

Dilip Chhabria being presented in court | Pic: Soorya Karkera

The arrest of car designer Dilip Chhabria unearthed a major car financing and forgery scam.

The scam is of about Rs 40 crore and can go up to Rs 100 crore, said Joint commissioner of Mumbai Crime Branch Milind Bharambe. Chhabria was sent to police custody till January 2, said police sources.

Investigation by the Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai Crime Branch revealed that Chhabria's firm, Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Limited, posed as customers for around 90 cars manufactured by them and availed loans from Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) of about Rs 42 lakh to buy each car. These cars were then sold to customers, stated a press release from the CIU.

On December 17, API Sachin Waze of the CIU received a tip-off that a two-seater sports car--DC Avanti - having a bogus number plate, was to come near Hotel Trident at Nariman Point. The trap was laid, however, the car didn't come. The next day a similar trap was laid near Taj Hotel in Colaba and the car was seized.

The car's owner produced the documents and it was found that the car was registered in Chennai. On verification the said ownership record was found genuine, however, on further investigation it was found that another car of the same engine and chassis number was registered in Haryana.

It was revealed that the said sports car was manufactured at a plant in Pune.

Preliminary investigation revealed that approximately 120 DC Avanti cars were sold in India and other countries.

"The CIU also found that multiple loans, averaging Rs 42 lakh for each car, were availed on many of these cars by Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd posing as customers to their own manufactured cars. The CIU suspects as many as 90 cars were used for such fraudulent financing these hypothecated cars were however sold to other customers before availing such fraudulent finance and/or after availing finance from various NBFCs such as BMIW Financial Services," reads the press release.

The Crime Branch is further investigating the quantum of loss to the government exchequer caused by the accused persons by virtue of non-payment of applicable taxes such as custom duties, GST etc.

In December 2018, Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd commenced insolvency proceedings. The CIU also suspects that apart from BMW Financial Services, the accused along with his other associates, have duped other NBFCs too.

Cricketer Dinesh Karthik had also moved a consumer court in Chennai in 2015, complaining against Chhabria over the dealership's failure to refund the booking amount of Rs 5 lakh paid for a car worth 34.9 lakh.

Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd was incorporated on June 14, 1993. DC Avanti was launched in 2016.