Mumbai Police arrested famed auto maker and designer Dilip Chhabria on Monday in connection with charges of fraud and counterfeiting leveled against him.rn
Who is Dilip Chhabria?
rnDilip Chhabria is a household name when it comes to modified vehicles, and its "DC" brand design has garnered much attention and has many celebrities and their clients. He is also credited with launching the
DC Avanti, known as India's first sports car in 2016. His company, Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd, was founded in 1993 and launched the DC Avanti in 2016 after official certification from the Research Association. Cars in India (ARAI) in March 2015. They have sold nearly 120 cars of this type across the country and the world.rn
Why did Mumbai police arrest Dilip Chhabria?
rnJoint (Crime) Police Commissioner Melind Parambi said Tuesday that they have discovered that nearly 90 DC Avanti vehicles manufactured by Dilip Chhabria Designs Pvt Ltd (DDCPL) have been used in fraudulent financing. They found that DDCPL used different loans at an average of Rs 42,000 per vehicle. The company will emerge as customers for its manufactured cars and will borrow from NBFCs (Non-bank finance companies) that will not be repaid. These vehicles were subsequently sold to other customers after obtaining financing through fraudulent means without the customers' knowledge.rnrn
Dilip Chhabriarn
Was there a registration fraud involved as well?
rnYeah. Police found that most of the 90 vehicles were registered with two or sometimes three offices from different states. For example, the complainant in the case is someone who lives in Tamil Nadu and whose machine and chassis number has been registered in Tamil Nadu and Haryana RTO. The police believe they will use these multiple registration numbers to get more loans that they were not intending to pay off.rn
How did deception appear?
rnIt was revealed after someone from Tamil Nadu who bought DC Avanti, valued at Rs 42 lakh, committed a
traffic offense. When he was stabbed, the traffic officer told him that his car also appeared to be registered in Haryana. By checking the Vahan website, it was discovered that the car was already registered with two money transfer offices. Since he bought the sports car from the Chhabria he kept trying to call him, but the latter was evasive. He then came to Mumbai to confront him, until the Mumbai Police received a notification to this effect, and took the author's statement and registered the FIR of Chhabria.rn
Can RTOs to assign registration numbers to the same chassis and device number?
rnNo. By law, the chassis and machine number can be registered from the RTO simultaneously. It cannot be registered in two places. Police will write to interested RTOs so they can fill in holes in the system.rn
Do the police suspect other people being involved?
rnAside from those from Chhabria, the police are investigating the involvement of three or four NBFCs that gave them loans. In some cases, police found out that the NBFC had authorized the loan even before the vehicle was registered. Police suspect some NBFC employees may have knowledge of the fraud and will soon contact them for questioning.rn
Police suspects customs evasion.
rnPolice discovered that various parts, such as the car's engine, were imported from abroad. Additionally, some of the vehicles they sold to citizens of other countries did so at a lower value than those sold in India. Police believe it could be related to tariff evasion and will investigate the same.rn
Has Dilip Chhabria broken the law in the past?
rnAlthough no case was registered against him in Mumbai according to the police, he was sued by cricketer Dinesh Karthik in 2015 when the latter filed in consumer court saying that Chhabria had not paid the security deposit. 5 rupees I paid as reserve amount even after not finding the satisfactory car after taking a test drive and returning it.rnrn
Also Read: DC Avanti Car- 5 things about India’s First Sports Car
