Bizman conned of 3cr in overseas scrap deal

Accused Didn’t Own Goods Shown To Victim

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: The city police arrested a scrap dealer, Roshan Sunny Rappai, at the Chennai airportlastweekwhen he was about to flee the country. Rappai has allegedly duped a businessman from Chembur whom he promised to sell metal scrap worth Rs 3.35 crorein Papua NewGuinea.

Thescrap shown tothe victim, Sachin Petkar, did not belong toRappai, police said.

Following Petkar’s complaintin January,officersPravin Bhagat, Mahesh Athawale and Suman Chavan took up the case. “I have been importing steel and other material from west Africa andexporting them to Southeast Asian countries,” Petkar,whois a partner in M/sAlfiyaEnterprises,said. “In July 2010,Rappai,through a middle man, offered to sell over 5 lakh tonne scrap, which he said, was kept in his yard at Papua New Guinea. He claimed to own Universal Steel Corporation in Singapore.”

Petkar said initially, they were shown some photographsof the product. “In the first consignment, we decided to buy 40,000 tonne steel and an agreement was made. I paid Rs 2 lakh in advance and spent another Rs 80,000 as shipping charges. But when the scrap was not delivered till April 2011, I called up Rappai, but he did not entertain the calls. Fed up, I set off for Papua New Guinea. On reaching there,Iwastoldthat the scrap did not belong to Rappai,” saidPetkar.Hethen went to Singapore and confronted Rappai and his associate, Asha Natrajan. The duo reportedly agreed to make good the losses in 90 days. Petkar claimed the two also promised to send him 60 containers of scrap and as a security, Rappai gave him a cheque of Rs 3.5 crore, which subsequently bounced.

During the probe, the police found that Rappai was born and brought up in Chennai. After school, he became a commission agentin scrap business and stayed at Natrajan’s house in Singapore. Petkar said Natrajan took careof theentirebusiness.

The Times of India, February 20, 2012