Mumbai Crime: Office assistant arrested for fraud of Rs 2.9 crore

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Azad Maidan police have arrested a 53-year-old office assistant Madhukar Patil of Mehra Capital Services Pvt Ltd on Sunday in a fraud case of Rs. 2.88 crore.

Patil was on the run after the GT Punja, director of the company, registered a case against him on March 14 at Azad Maidan police station. After the police began investigating the case, Patil went underground. However, later on, he surrendered himself before the police after the pressure started to mount on his family, said the source.

"Due to the owner's busy schedule, Patil was assigned the responsibility to pay bills like electricity, water, telephone, etc from the office account. He would make the payments via cheques which were signed by Punja since he would always be travelling on business tours," said the officer.

The matter came to light after Punja's driver, Jairam Pujari was told by Patil that the director has given him a loan of Rs. 50 lakh. "When Pujari enquired with Punja if Patil had been given the loan, Punja was alarmed and quickly checked the bank account details of his office," the officer said.

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"During an internal audit, Punja became aware that Patil had withdrawn an excessive amount from the office account during 2013 and October 2018. Punja approached us and we registered a case against Patil and accountant Shivaji Shavadekar (45)," said the officer, who added that Patil bought property at Vartak Nagar in Thane.

The police have also arrested Shavadekar in the case. They have been booked under sections 420, 408, 467, 471, 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code.

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