As per the Kandivali police, Bharat Shah (52) who runs retail and wholesale cloth business at Malad was approached by Parmar and his accomplice Rocky Nayak with a business proposal. “Rocky, who is also into the cloth business, and Parmar approached Shah in the first week of January. They promised to procure some readymade clothes for him to sell at a fixed rate. A convinced Shah gave Rs 9.85 lakh to the duo,” said Senior Police Inspector Surendra Jaiswal of the Kandivali police station.

However, on February 2, when Shah paid a visit to the office run by Rocky and Parmar to enquire about the progress of the business transaction between them, he was shocked to find the office locked. Realising that he had been duped, Shah approached the Kandivli police and filed a complaint of cheating against the duo.