Ever since the Mumbai Police recovered 41 paintings from an apartment in Princess Street - including the 31 which Sheetal Mafatlal claimed had been switched with fakes by her former friend Arif Patel - an eerie silence has descended on the case.
The property from where the recovery was made was leased in the name of Manoj Shah, Sheetal's manager and Man Friday of several years. A few days before Shah was called in for questioning and spilled the beans, Sheetal left for London - till we last heard, she hasn't returned. What's interesting though is that even after it dawned on the police that the socialite had sent them on a wild goose chase while the paintings had been under the watchful eye of her own trusted staff, there's much hesitation about talking the next logical step.
From what we hear, the police had been under considerable pressure so far because of the intervention of a senior NCP minister and an influential Bandra-based businessman, who were apparently convinced about Sheetal's innocence. As far back as October last year, the VP Road police had reached the conclusion that Sheetal's complaint against Arif Patel and two of his associates was 'maliciously false', but the B-summary report was recalled in mysterious circumstances. In the end, it's not the originals but the fakes which could provide the final key to the puzzle - because whoever made them has the answer to who commissioned them.
According to people who've seen the fakes, the near identical reproductions required a high level of technical expertise and access to some sophisticated machinery, which narrowed down the list to a handful of probables. Your diarist has learnt that among the people who have been summoned for questioning by the Crime Branch is South Mumbai based celebrity photographer Vikram Bawa, known to be a close friend of Sheetal. Whether he's being seen as a witness, suspect or merely a technical expert is anybody's guess but something tells us we may be on to the final chapter of this bizarre whodunit.
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