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MUMBAI: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police have registered a Rs 330 crore cheating and forgery case against a city-based company and its representatives on Tuesday for duping HSBC by securing investment with fake promises.

The accused told the bank that they entered into contract with BBC to upgrade their entire library from 2-D to 3-D. The accused wanted to purchase technical equipment and programs for it and asked for the money. They submitted forged documents after which the bank invested in their company. Afterwards the bank learnt that the submitted documents were forged and they had been cheated. The bank approached the Mumbai police for help.

Joint commissioner of police (crime), Himanshu Roy, said, "After conducting initial inquiry on their complaint, prima facie we found about the cheating. We registered the case for further investigation."

A Mumbai based company, which has a branch in Dubai, had approached HSBC for the money in 2010. The accused allegedly even arranged the bank representative’s meeting with an executive who claimed that he was representing BBC. It’s not clear where the meeting took place and how the bank was convinced about the BBC representative’s genuineness.

Afterward, the accused insisted that the bank disburse part of the required money immediately as they needed to pay the instrument supplier. They submitted their company’s forged paper to the bank after which it invested the money in their company. The company involved in the fraud also had two sister companies.

The money transaction took place in jurisdiction of the D N Nagar police station.

The bank later verified with the BBC and found that they had not awarded any contract to the accused. The bank also found that the BBC representative met with them was con and all the submitted documents were forged. The bank filed the case with EOW. On Tuesday, an EOW officer visited at D N Nagar police station along with the legal advisor of HSBC and registered the case. The case has been transferred to the EOW for further investigation.

Deputy commissioner of police (EOW) Rajwardhan Sinha said, "The accused submitted fake agreement and documents to cheat the bank. We have registered the case against the persons and during investigation if we come to know that more accused involved in the fraud we book them in the case."