A court in Mumbai, on Tuesday, extended the police custody of Vaibhav Pandya till April 19. Vaibhav is accused of cheating his step brothers, cricketers Hardik and Krunal Pandya, of Rs 4 crore in a joint business venture.
The accused, Vaibhav Pandya, was produced before a magistrate court after his previous remand expired.
Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) requested the court to extend Vaibhav's custody for further investigation. As Vaibhav's lawyer Niranjan Mundargi didn't oppose the EOW plea, the court extended his custody till Friday.
Vaibhav, 37, was arrested on April 8 on charges of criminal breach of trust, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, forgery and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly cheating the cricketer brothers to the tune of more than Rs 4 crore.
Earlier, Vaibhav had told the court that 'it was a family matter and the case has been filed due to a misunderstanding'.
The cricketer brothers along with Vaibhav had set up a partnership-based firm in Mumbai and started a polymer business in 2021, as per police.
It is alleged that Vaibhav set up another firm dealing in the same business without informing the Pandya brothers, thus violating the partnership agreement.
With a new company being set up, the profits of the original partnership firm allegedly dwindled causing a loss of about Rs 3 crore.
During this period, Vaibhav allegedly increased his own profit by 20 to 33 per cent and caused loss to Hardik and Krunal. Vaibhav allegedly also diverted funds from the partnership account to his own, which is around Rs 1 crore.
