A case of forgery has been registered by police here against an art dealer and another man for allegedly duping an investment banker of Rs 17.9 crore by selling him fake paintings, claiming that they were the works of renowned artistes like Manjit Bawa and Francis Newton Souza.
Tardeo police registered a case against Vishwang Desai, a lawyer, and art dealer Rajesh Rajpal under Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 467,468,471 (offences related to forgery) on Monday but no arrest has been made, an official said.
As per the complaint filed by banker Punit Bhatia, he met Desai at a party last year, the police official said.
Desai allegedly told him that he was an art connoisseur and could help him get paintings of prominent artists at reasonable prices. He put Bhatia in touch with Rajpal, the complaint said.
In January 2022, Desai allegedly offered to get two painting for him. One of them, titled ‘Krishna with Cows’, was a work by Manjit Bawa, and its current owner, Bhopal-based IAS officer Subrata Banerjee, was ready to sell it for Rs 6.75 crore, he allegedly told Bhatia.
A painting by Francis Newton Souza was also available for Rs 1.75 crore, Desai informed him.
Bhatia made payment on the bank account of Art Indian International run by Rajesh Rajpal and received the two painting which he hanged on the walls of his house in Delhi.
On Desai’s advice, he bought nine more paintings from Rajpal between January to May 2022, paying a total of Rs 17.9 crore, he told police.
But some of Bhatia’s friends told him that the two paintings were not the works of Bawa and Souza. When he contacted Banerjee, he denied to have sold any such paintings to anybody.
The complainant then got the signatures on the paintings examined and found that they were forgeries.
As the accused allegedly refused to return his money, Bhatia approached police last month, the official said.
Further probe was underway.
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