Over a hundred persons rushed to the Hadapsar police station on Sunday after reading the scam reports. On Saturday the Hadapsar police had seized 50 cars that Gilani had parked at Laxminagar in Kondhwa. The police have come across cases in which Gilani has sold a car to more than two persons.

Gilani, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, has been running Harsha Enterprises at Mega Centre in Magarpatta, for one and a half years. Claiming contracts with IT and BPO companies, he hired cars from over 200 persons in various parts of the State.

He sold these without giving information about their owners. He asked the new owners to rent them to his enterprise, assuring them of handsome returns. After some days, he again sold the cars and urged the new buyers to rent them to him.

Investigations have revealed that he had no direct contract with BPO companies. He was supplying cars to call centres through other contractors.

The police said Gilani stopped giving rent to all car owners from September 2007. They began visiting his home in Kondhwa Budruk for recovering money. He assured full payment by January 15. He failed to do it. Some car owners went to his house on January 16. He was missing. Two of the car owners learnt that they have purchased the same vehicle from Gilani.

As the fraud came to light, car owner Kiran Sampat Salunke (30) of Sangli lodged a complaint at the Hadapsar police station. The police booked his accomplices Parag Ashok Vichare (34) of Kolhapur and Alankar Suryabhan Sangale of Sinhagad Road. Both were getting customers for Gilani.