A case of cheating and misappropriation of funds will be registered against car designer Dilip Chhabria and his company for allegedly duping stand-up comedian and actor Kapil Sharma of Rs. 5.7 crore. Chhabria was arrested on December 29, 2020 in connection with a car finance and dual registration racket. He was on January 7, 2021 remanded to judicial custody.
In September 2020, Kapil had filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), alleging that he had ordered a customised make-up van in 2017 and paid Chhabria a total of Rs. 5.7 crore but it was never delivered. Sharma alleged that in fact, Chhabria demanded more money and even parking charges of Rs. 12-13 lakh during the time the van was being customised. The police recorded Kapil Sharma’s statement on 7th January.
After learning of Chhabria’s arrest, Sharma had called up police commissioner Parambir Singh and had reminded him about his EOW complaint of September last year. Kapil said, he initially paid Rs. 5.3 crore in 2017 at the time of placing the order for the make-up van, and an additional Rs. 40 lakh in 2018 by way of VAT and GST. When the van was still not delivered to him, the actor-comedian in 2019 approached the National Company Law Tribunal which froze Dilip Chhabria’s bank account. Following this, Chhabria asked Sharma to pay another Rs. 60 lakh which he did. In 2020, Kapil alleged that Chhabria sent him an invoice of Rs. 12-13 lakh for parking the yet-to-be-finished van in his garage for two years. It is after this that an exasperated Kapil approached the EOW.