The Surat police arrested former Chief Executive Officer of Ventura AirConnet Kartikey Shankerlal Garasiya from Mumbai international Airport on Tuesday in connection with the $3.63 lakh cheating case filed against him by the company in 2019.
On Wednesday, Garasiya was produced before the Surat district court, which sent him to two-day police remand.
Garasiya, 49, is a resident of Dungri village in Dharampur taluka of Valsad district.
According to police, Garasiya was detained at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday when he was trying to travel to the US, based on the lookout notice issued against him. The officials intimated Surat police and a team of Umra police went to Mumbai airport and took Garasiya into custody and brought him to Surat late on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he was produced before the Surat district court.
The case is being investigated by the Surat Crime Branch.
According to police, Manu Sojitra, working with Ventura AirConnect Company in Surat, had lodged a complaint of cheating against Garasiya with the Umra police station on September 30, 2019. Police had booked Garasiya under IPC Sections 408 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating).
In his complaint, Sojitra had said that Garasiya had joined the company as CEO in 2016. Garasiya had presented a proposal to the company’s board of directors to buy a four-seater aircraft from Golf Aero Flight School, Arlington, US, the complaint said. After obtaining approval, Garasiya had made a deal to purchase the four-seater plane for $ 5.25 million (approximately Rs. 3.52 crore), and payment was made to Golf Aero through Garasiya in 2016. However, the delivery of the plane did not take place as agreed. In 2018, when the board of directors raised the issue, Garasiya told them that the aircraft was damaged in the 2017 tornado.
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Ventura AirConnet then filed an insurance claim with a US-based company, submitting all the details of the plane. The insurance company, in its report, stated that the plane’s actual price is $ 3.85 million, not $ 5.25 million. The claim of damage for the aircraft is still pending.
After learning about the alleged cheating by Garasiya, the company demanded money and Garasiya paid $1.65 lakh to Ventura in 2019. The company fired him as CEO and filed a complaint against him at Umra police station.
Surat Crime Branch police inspector J G Patel said, “Evading arrest, Garasiya had made frequent tours to the US and other countries. He came to his native place a few months ago and was planning to fly to the US on Tuesday. We are looking into the case details.”
Despite repeated attempts, the company board of directors, including Ishwar Dholakia, were unavailable for a comment.
