Mumbai Crime: Woman clerk booked for Rs 6 lakh fraud at school in Thane

The accused allegedly deleted receipts from the institution's accounting software of fees collected by her from 61 students between January and December 2018

A 32-year-old woman clerk of a school in Thane district of Maharashtra has been booked for allegedly misappropriating students' fee to the tune of nearly Rs 6 lakh, police said on Tuesday. According to a complaint filed by the private school's management, the accused, a resident of Dombivli town, allegedly deleted receipts from the institution's accounting software of fees collected by her from 61 students between January and December 2018, a police spokesperson said.

Based on the complaint, the police on Monday booked the accused under IPC Sections 408 (criminal breach of trust), 420, (cheating) and 468 (forgery), the official said. No arrest was made so far, the police said, adding that a probe was underway in the case.

In another incident, a 22-year-old man was arrested from Jharkhand for allegedly cheating an 'Indian Idol' participant of Rs 1.7 lakh on the pretext of debit card verification by posing as a bank executive, police said.

The accused, Rajkumar Jaynarayan Mandal, was arrested by the Sion police with the help of Cyber Cell of the Mumbai police, an official said. Mandal had phoned Avanti Patel (23), who participated in the singing reality show 'Indian Idol' last year, and her sister posing as an executive of a public sector bank, he said.

While talking to them, the accused obtained their bank details and debit card passwords. He then fraudulently withdrew Rs 1.7 lakh from Patel's and her sister's accounts and transferred the money to other bank accounts and Paytm, a digital wallet, he said.

The incident came to light when the singer realised that she has been cheated and lodged a complaint with the Sion police, the official said. During the investigation, the police traced the phone call to Jharkhand and also got details of the accounts in which the siphoned off money was deposited, he said. A police team went to Jharkhand and apprehended the accused from there, he said.

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