KINGSTON businessman Raju Khemlani, 55, who is accused of defrauding $15 million from two colleague businessmen, is booked to appear in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court tomorrow.

Khemlani, who was arrested by the Fraud Squad on Tuesday, was released on $5 million station bail with surety.

According to allegations, in 1996 Mahesh Mahtani and his brother Harash Mahtani, businessmen of Divdeep Investment Ltd of King Street, Kingston, entered into a contract to buy a jewellery store, Topaz Jewelers Ltd, situated at 81b King Street in downtown Kingston from Khemlani. They agreed on a purchase price of $15.55 million. It is further alleged that the Mahtani brothers paid Khemlani $14.8 million with an agreement that the balance be paid upon the transfer of the property.

Allegations are that during the period Khemlani secured a loan of $55 million from the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and used the said property as collateral to secure the loan.

Khemlani has been accused of failing to return the money to the Mahtanis.

The loan, in the meantime, went into arrears resulting in the auctioning of the property by the bank earlier this year.
The matter was reported to the Fraud Squad, who arrested Khemlani following an investigation.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot