Forty-year-old Gopaul Tiwari of 73 Second Street, Craig Village, East Bank Demerara was remanded to prison last Friday when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for allegedly obtaining over $400,000 from a woman under the pretext that he could import a car for her.
Tiwari pleaded not guilty to the charge of obtaining money by false pretence when it was read to him by Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson.
He denied that between July 15 and 25 at Parika he obtained $480,000 from Sabatrie Jalliel by pretending that he was in a position to sell her a Toyota motorcar.
Prosecutor Krishnadat Ramanah stated that this was Tiwari’s third matter in the court. He said that Tiwari had been involved in a similar transaction with Jalliel’s brother and that matter is currently before the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court.
He said that Tiwari had offered to repay Jalliel’s brother but he still has not fully compensated him.
Tiwari stated, however, that he is being victimized by the police since they keep bringing him to court for such matters although he had tried to assure them that he was not a “fraud man.”
He said “de police is deliberately doing this to keep me imprisoned.”
However, Jalliel, who was also present in court, stated that she met Tiwari at Best Buy Auto Sales when both of them were looking for vehicles.
She said that Tiwari told her that he would import a car for her if she was interested in buying one from overseas and he usually accepts a down payment of $200,000 until the car arrives.
She said that several days later she handed over $480,000 to Tiwari who showed her a picture of what her car would look like when she gets it.
Jalliel said that Tiwari had promised to get the car to her by August 12 but when this date passed and she still did not have the car she became worried.
She said that her attempts to make contact with Tiwari were futile since his phone was always turned off.
Tiwari then interjected that, “It is not an illegal act.” He said that he had several vehicles and he is awaiting four others that are currently being imported.
Tiwari then stated that he wanted to resolve the matter by recompensing Jalliel.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that he return to court on October 15 with the money to compensate Jalliel.
