The Vile Parle police have arrested the accused, Birju Jayendra Shukla, for defrauding a female friend of approximately Rs 35 lakhs under the pretext of investment in a company started in Indore. After the arrest, the accused was presented in the local court of Andheri. The 41-year-old complainant lives in Vile Parle with her husband and daughter and works for a private company. She used to work at A Plus India 26 years ago, where she met Birju Shukla. Since then, they had been in contact via WhatsApp and calls.
According to information received from the police, in January 2023, Birju messaged her and called her to meet in Vile Parle. During this meeting, he told her that he had lost his job and his financial situation was serious. Therefore, he said that he was not interested in a job anymore and wanted to start his own business and was going to start a company in Indore. He offered her a partnership in this company. She said she would talk to her husband about it.
A few days later, she came to meet Birju with her husband. This time, he provided detailed information about the company. He tried to gain their trust by saying that initially, he needed Rs 50 to 60 Lakh as investment and they would share the profit as a percentage of the invested amount. Hence, they decided to invest in his company.
Between March 6 and September 2, 2023, she transferred Rs 35 lakhs to Birju's Berryboon Company. For this, she borrowed some money from her friends and boss. After receiving this amount, he did not provide any information about the company.
An agreement was supposed to be made after the investment, but Birju was not meeting her for the agreement. Without giving any information about the company, there was no response from his side regarding the profits. Finding this suspicious, the complainant woman decided to break the partnership with him. She informed him and started demanding the return of the invested money. However, the accused neither paid her nor provided any company account details. Realizing that Birju was committing fraud, she filed a complaint with the Vile Parle police. Following an investigation of this complaint, the police registered a case against Birju Shukla under sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
Even before the case was registered, Birju had absconded, so the police conducted a special operation to arrest him. During interrogation, he admitted to defrauding his female friend and using the money she had given for his personal benefit.