RAJKOT: A ceramics company in Morbi was allegedly defrauded of Rs 2.38 crore by an Abu Dhabi importer and its Chennai-based shipping agent.
The alleged conspirators imported tiles at Dubai port in Aug 2023, altered the shipper’s details in the bill and thus enabled the cargo to be released without the payment being made.
Kapil Goriya, who runs Swastika Overseas, a Morbi-based ceramics trading company, travelled to Dubai to confront the importer but to no avail. He filed a complaint at B Division police station in Morbi in June.
A Morbi police team visited Chennai only to find that the accused had left the country.
Police registered a case against Abu Dhabi residents Mahmood Dudmak and Ramiz and Chennai residents Prabhakaran Gopalaswami and Ravi Chadni.
Dudmak, representing Pure Stone for Stone Fixing LLC, contacted Goriya online in Jan 2023 and expressed interest in importing tiles from Morbi. After samples were exchanged, they finalized a deal in Aug 2023 for 51 containers, worth Rs 2.38 crore. Ramiz was introduced as the importer’s finance manager who would handle the payment and shipping arrangements.
Ramiz designated Zoom Shipping as their shipping agent and Global Cargo Logistics Pvt Ltd from Chennai as the sub-agent. Prabhakaran Gopalaswami served as the Chennai company’s managing director and Ravi Chandni as its director.
The Abu Dhabi company provided an irrevocable letter of credit (LC) from UOB Global Capital Finance Limited, Tanzania, as security.
The Chennai firm sent a shipment booking confirmation via email and Goriya dispatched the tiles from Mundra port in two batches. Despite instructions from Goriya’s customs house agent about prior approval for cargo release, the Chennai company persuaded him to issue the master bill of lading with Global Cargo as the shipper, claiming it would expedite the LC encashment at Dubai port.
The payment never materialized and Goriya discovered that the cargo had been released from Dubai port. When he obtained a copy of the master bill of lading, he found that Global Cargo had tampered with the master bill of lading, showing their name as the exporter.
“The first consignee in the master bill should be the bank who issued the LC, but the Chennai-based accused mentioned Pure Stone as the first consignee,” said a police officer involved in the investigation. He added, “The bank was unaware of the cargo release and thus did not release the payment.”
Source Homevior.in
