Update on January 11, 2020: The High Court has quashed the FIR and the lower court has closed the case.
Mumbai: A husband and wife, working as managers of a firm, and the company’s accountant have been arrested by the Turbhe MIDC police for cheating the firm of ₹31.08 lakh.
The three accused, employees of New Ramp Green Technologies at Turbhe TTC industrial area, were arrested in the last three days after the company’s owner, Sunil Soi, came to know of the fraud and registered a case with the police. Manager Akanksha Bhanot (38), senior manager Manish Bhanot (41) and accountant Tahir Champeli (37) had been transferring the allowances meant for the firm’s employees to Champeli’s account since 2014.
“The firm provides business solutions, and information technology, business process outsourcing and human resource services to clients. All of its transactions are carried out online. The company used to hire new employees on a contract basis for new projects. The employees used to get allowances apart from their salaries, which were credited eight days after the salary was credited. The accused, instead of transferring the amount to the employees, used to transfer the money to Champeli’s account,” Senior Police Inspector Ramchandra Deshmukh said.
According to the police, Mr. Soi conducted an audit for the period of 2014 to 2017 and learnt that the allowances had not been transferred to the employees’ accounts. “The employees did not know that they were eligible for allowances, and hence never complained,” Mr. Deshmukh said.
Mr. Soi then approached the police.
“During our investigations, we found that the three employees were committing the fraud,” Mr. Deshmukh said. The accused have been arrested under Sections 420, 408 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 43 (b) and 66 of the IT Act. Before the case was registered, the accused returned ₹5.55 lakh to the owner: ₹1.80 lakh in cash and ₹3.75 lakh through an online transaction.
