Vaibhav Pandya, the stepbrother of cricket brothers Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya, who was arrested last week for duping the Pandya brothers of Rs 4.25 crore, had also morphed photos and videos of the Pandya brothers to threaten them. Vaibhav had allegedly threatened to tarnish their reputation when one of them had confronted him over irregularities in their partnership firm, a probe has revealed.
Vaibhav was arrested by officials of Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on April 8. On Friday, Vaibhav was produced before the court and was remanded to police custody till April 16.
According to the EOW, the Pandya brothers and Vaibhav had set up a polymer business firm in 2021 and the latter was to look after daily operations. Vaibhav breached the terms of the agreement and set up his own proprietorship firm in the same business (in some other person’s name) keeping the two brothers in the dark, EOW officials said.
“Later, Vaibhav allegedly diverted money from the LLP (limited liability partnership) firm to his own firm. Gradually the profit in the partnership firm dropped.
Besides, in excess to his due share, Vaibhav also allegedly fraudulently increased his profit percentage (from 20% to 33.4%) in the firm without letting the two brothers know. Because of this, the Pandya brothers’ 40-40% profit percentage dropped to 33.3% each. For this, Vaibhav allegedly forged signatures of the Pandya brothers on the firm’s agreement,” an EOW officer said.
When Vaibhav was confronted about these irregularities, he allegedly threatened one of the brothers with dire consequences. He threatened to tarnish their image using morphed photos and videos, the EOW’s investigation revealed.
Police searched Vaibhav’s house and seized his mobile phone, laptop and iPad. The gadgets were being sent to the forensic lab for examination and to retrieve the morphed content.
When EOW asked Vaibhav about these irregularities, he claimed that changes in the supplementary agreement was a result of a mistake by a chartered accountant company. To check the veracity of his claims, the EOW will seek details from the chartered accountant company, an EOW source said.