Kathak exponent Sandip Mahavir
Kathak exponent and winner of the Bismilla Khan Yuva Award, Pandit Sandeep Mahavir, has been booked for cheating Marine Drive-based stockbroker Manish Shah of crores, say the police.
Kathak exponent Pandit Sandeep Mahavir has been booked for cheating a south Mumbai-based stockbroker of Rs 1.70 crore.
In 2014, the businessman, Manish Shah, approached Mahavir to teach his wife kathak. As per the agreement, Mahavir taught the wife kathak for two hours every day at Shah’s residence on Marine Drive.
Over time, Shah and Mahavir grew close and the guru began offering him ideas to improve his business.
Luring him
Mahavir then allegedly recommended that he invest in dance events and assured him of huge profits in return. So allegedly enamoured was the stockbroker with Mahavir’s big promises that without consulting anyone else, he began funding non-existent ventures. From 2015-16, he paid Mahavir Rs 1.70 crore through two to three cheques.
But after getting the payments, Mahavir allegedly began ignoring Shah and offered excuses each time he was asked about the promised profits.
This dragged on for some time until Shah questioned him point blank in January this year. During the ensuing argument, Shah demanded his money back. Mahavir, however, allegedly refused to return the money.
Complaint filed
Shah finally approached the Marine Drive police on February 23 to lodge a complaint against Mahavir. In his complaint, he gave details of the cheques through which he made the transactions.
A senior officer from Marine Drive police station said an FIR under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC have been filed against Mahavir.
Never intended to cheat: Guru
Mahavir claimed Shah had approached him and offered to invest money in a dance musical, Abhimanyu, the Fastest Feat. “He wanted to invest 50% of the fund and paid R1.70 crore. I allowed him to invest in the middle of the project as he was an acquaintance. But, he backed out later when he thought he wouldn’t make huge profits out of it. Since the project incurred a loss, I could not pay him back. Musical shows are subject to risk; sometimes, they earn profits, sometimes they don’t. Had my project succeeded, I would have definitely paid Shah. I never intended to cheat him.”
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