Dilip Chhabria, the founder of India’s renowned car modification studio DC Design, has been arrested by the Mumbai Police. The Mumbai Crime Branch, which had charged Chhabria under Section 420 (cheating and forgery) of the Indian Penal Code yesterday, has now revealed new details about the case.
A report from India Today says that the DC Avanti car scam is said to be at least to the tune of Rs 40 crore. The police say that Chhabria was illegally selling multiple units of the DC Avanti sports car with the same engine and chassis numbers. He is also accused of taking a number of loans on one car and then selling that car to the third party.
In addition, the police accuse Chhabria of buying cars designed by his own company through loans from Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), before selling them to customers – they suspect over 90 cars were sold in this manner. With the hypothecation (as the process is known) of these cars, the taxes that CBUs and high-end cars attract could be side-stepped, albeit illegally.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story.
Also see:
Mahindra Marazzo by DC Design: A close look
DC Avanti review, test drive