ED Uncovers ₹17.9 Crore Art Fraud, Fake 'Maharaja' Used To Dupe Investment Banker

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has uncovered a plot straight out of a Bollywood movie. Recently, while probing Rajesh Rajpal of the Rare Art Gallery in a money laundering case, the ED claimed Rajpal projected a poor farmer from Madhya Pradesh as a maharaja of purported Umaria kingdom and projected to have procured 10 paintings of famous artists worth crores from him. He then allegedly sold these paintings to an investment banker.

Prosecution Complaint Filed

The ED recently filed a prosecution complaint against the gallery, Rajpal, owner of Shree Namo Bullions Abhishek Jain, Manish Sakariya of Manish Gold Palace, and advocate Vishwang Desai.

Details of the Alleged Fraud

It was alleged that Rajpal, in connivance with Desai, duped an investment banker of Rs 17.90 crore by selling him duplicate paintings of artists Manjit Bawa, FN Souza, MF Hussain and SH Raza between February and May 2022.

It was claimed that Desai provided an authenticity certificate, but later experts confirmed that the paintings were fake. The banker lodged the complaint in December 2023 with the Tardeo police. The probe was later transferred to the Economic Offence Wing (EOW), following which the ED took up the investigation.

Paintings and Sources

During the probe, it was revealed that Rajpal had sourced a painting by Manjit Bawa (Krishna with Cow – 1991) from Subroto Banerjee, a retired IAS officer. He claimed the other 10 paintings were allegedly procured from Raghavendra Singh Parmar, the purported maharaja of Umaria.

These included two by MF Husain (Village family of 1980 and Village well of 1960), four untitled works by Raza dating back to 1990, 1997, 1998, and 1995, four works by Souza (Head 1965, Landscape 1958, Landscape 1957, and Death of Jesus).

Forgery and False Claims

The probe revealed that the authentication certificate was signed by Raghavendra Parmar’s father, Virendra Parmar, who procured the works and passed them to his son. However, when ED officials confronted Raghavendra, he claimed his father was a small-time farmer who, in his lifetime, did not leave Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh and never met these artists.

Mechanism of the Scam

Parmar claimed he was introduced to Rajpal by one Vijay Chauhan. As Parmar needed money, he had sold some paintings (not by any famous artist) which were in torn condition for which he was paid Rs33 lakh. He also claimed that Rajpal got him to sign some papers as well.

The ED checked with IAS officer Banerjee, who denied selling any painting to Rajpal. He claimed he sold two different paintings of different artists and that Rajpal had forged his documents and details to show that a Manjit Bawa work was delivered from him to the banker.

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Money Laundering Links

The ED has claimed that by using links to ‘Rajas’, Rajpal made the artwork appear more genuine and valuable. The money laundering probe also revealed that Rajpal projected purchase of silver and gold artefacts, bullion from Shree Namo Bullions and Manish Gold Palace, took cash from them and transferred the funds to make other purchases.

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