ED charges art dealer, banker in ₹18cr scam
Mumbai just saw a wild art scam unfold—an investment banker lost ₹17.90 crore after being sold fake paintings he thought belonged to a royal family from Madhya Pradesh.
Turns out, the artworks were falsely claimed to belong to a farmer, Raghavendra Singh Parmar, who was presented as a Maharaja, while art dealer Rajesh Rajpal and others pulled the strings behind the scenes.
The ED is now charging them with money laundering.
Desai got pulled in for connecting banker to Rajpal
Investigators found that Rajpal faked documents and shipping invoices to make everything look legit, even pretending Parmar was a Maharaja to boost the paintings' value.
Some of the stolen money—about ₹4.91 crore—was spent on bogus gold deals, while the rest went toward personal and business expenses.
Advocate Vihang Desai also got pulled in for connecting the banker to Rajpal.
The case heads to court next month—a reminder that buying art can be risky if you don't do your homework!