Mumbai, Jan 7 (IANS): Ten days after arresting vehicle designer Dilip Chhabria, the Mumbai Police on Thursday called comedian-actor Kapil Sharma to record his statement in the case, officials said here on Thursday.

Some time ago, Sharma had ordered and bought a highly-luxurious vanity van from Chhabria which has been the talk of Bollywood circles.

The comedian was called by the Crime Intelligence Unit of Mumbai Police on Thursday to give his statement as a witness in the case after the high-profile matter was unearthed last month, Deputy Commissioner of Police, S. Chaitanya, told IANS.

It may be recalled that the CIU had nabbed Chhabria on December 28, 2020, on charges of running a fake car financing and registration racket involving his self-designed DC Avanti sportscars.

The fraud came to light after a two-seater sports car bearing a fake registration number was seized from one Indermal Ramani from near a five-star hotel on December 18.

Further investigations revealed that another car with the same engine and chassis number was registered in Haryana, which unearthed multiple loan frauds involving around 90 such cars.

This week, the CIU seized another 14 DC Avanti cars and 40 engines, besides 19 other high-end vehicles, in a raid at Chhabria's Pune workshop.

Proclaimed as India's maiden indigenously made sports car, DCDPL rolled out its first model in 2016, a year after securing approval from the Automative Research Association of India (ARAI).

Not ruling out further arrests, the police are also checking if the tentacles of the scam are spread in other states, the involvement of people from finance companies or NBFCs, etc.

Chhabria shot into limelight in the 1990s after he produced some eye-catching fancy cars for various celebs and even vanity vans for Bollywood personalities besides some concept cars, luxury passenger buses, and even aircraft interiors to soon become a legend in the country's niche automobile-designing industry.