Car designer Dilip Chhabria’s son Bonito Chhabaria was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch on Saturday in connection with the FIR registered last year on the basis of a complaint by actor Kapil Sharma. Kapil Sharma had alleged that he was cheated of Rs 5.3 crore by Dilip and Bonito among others. Sharma, in his complaint, had informed the police that between March and May 2017, he had paid Chabbria, who owns Dilip Chabbria Designs Pvt Ltd (DCDPL), Rs 5.3 crore to design a vanity bus for him.
When there was no progress made till 2019, Sharma approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The tribunal, after initial hearings, directed that DCDPL’s bank accounts must be frozen. Last year, when Chabbria sent a bill of Rs 1.20 crore to Sharma as parking charges for the spot where the yet-to-be-completed vanity van was about to be kept, the comedian had approached the police.
In September2020, Sharma approached the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and lodged a complaint against Chabbria. Earlier, Chhabria was arrested by CIU on December 28, 2020, after police found that he and his firm, Dilip Chhabria (DC) Designs Pvt Ltd, had allegedly availed loans from some non-banking financial companies (NBFC) by posing as customers looking to buy DC sports cars. Police raided his factory in Pune and seized 14 cars and 40 engines. After his police remand ended on Thursday, Chhabria was produced in court again and was granted judicial custody for 14 days. Chhabria had manufactured 127 DC-Avanti cars in the past four years, of which 120 had been sold in India and abroad.