GUWAHATI: The Maruti Nexa showroom located at Gorchuk is under scrutiny for all the wrong reasons as the showroom authorities have filed a fraud case against one of its employee who is absconding at present.
A source in the Gorchuk Police said, “According to the complaint which we have received, an employee Nikita Tiwari, has cheated more than Rs 1 crore from the customers and we are investigating the matter.”
The police revealed that according to the complaint, Nikita has taken advance from many customers for booking new vehicles without informing the management and now the customers are demanding the vehicles, but Nikita is absconding. The police also did not rule out that there might be other employees who are involved in the scam and the investigation will reveal the nexus.
Meanwhile, the customers are getting harassed as they have already booked the vehicle by paying advance and now they are not getting the vehicles.
A businessman from Tezpur, Avinash Bajaj, talking to G Plus said, “I paid around Rs 4.5 lakhs as an advance but I am not getting my car.”
Bajaj narrated his story that in August he visited Nexa in Gorchuk, to find out the car rates when he met Nikita Tiwari who gave him a good exchange offer for his Swift car. The exchange value for his Swift in Tezpur was Rs 2.7 lakhs, whereas Nikita offered him Rs 4.5 lakhs. He liked the offer and booked a S-Cross Zeta by paying a booking amount of Rs 11,000. After around five days, Nikita called him and asked him to deposit Rs 1 lakh as she informed him that the car is booked. He immediately made a payment of Rs 1 lakh on 21st August.
After 5 days Nikita again called him and said that the vehicle has reached the showroom and he has to pay the remaining amount, but she said that she will be delivering S- Cross Alpha which is around Rs 1 lakh more than S-Cross Zeta. Bajaj disagreed as he wanted Zeta because of its low price (Rs 9.98 lakh). Nikita it seems called him again after a while and said that he will get Alpha in the same price as Zeta but asked him to immediately make the payment. Bajaj again made a payment of Rs 4 lakhs as he would have exchanged his Swift for Rs 4.5 lakhs. He made the payment on 27th August.
He then wanted the delivery of his car which Nikita kept postponing and finally he visited the showroom on 12th September, as 17th September was Viswakarma Puja and he wanted the car before that.
On 12th August, Bajaj met Nikita who made her wait in the showroom for a while but later she was unreachable as he kept calling her. He even met the manager of the showroom who was also not able to contact her. Later, the manager of the showroom asked Bajaj to take the delivery on 17th September.
Bajaj said, “On 17th September, the manager called me and said that they have filed a complaint against Nikita in Gorchuk police station. Even the police called me to visit the police station as they require my statement for the investigation.” Bajaj is yet to visit the police station.
Similarly, there are many other customers who were cheated by the employee of the showroom. Police is suspecting that there might be more people involved in the scam and the arrests will be made accordingly.
The incident raises questions about the financial dealings of such showrooms where an employee could cheat customers without the knowledge of
the management.