December 2, 2020 8:05:30 am
The complaint, filed by the manager of a Vadodara branch of HDFC bank, claims that the money was allegedly diverted during the period from October 2018 to March 2020 (file photo).
Narmada District Police hired staff from Writer Business Services Private Limited, a cash management company, for the alleged theft of Rs 5.25 crore pertaining to the daily cash collection of the Statue of Unity and its allied projects. The complaint, filed by the manager of a Vadodara branch of HDFC bank, claims that the money was allegedly diverted during the period from October 2018 to March 2020.
The Kevadia Police Station, which has registered the complaint, has launched an investigation into SoU’s financial transactions.
The complaint filed late Monday indicates that the bank hired Writer Business to offer a cash pickup service at the door of the Statue of Unity, which had ticket counters offline prior to the Covid-19 shutdown to enter various projects of the tourist place, as well as the regular parking charges.
A SoU official said: “HDFC bank has been servicing the cash collected daily by SoU administration at various counters for offline tickets and parking fees, and depositing it into the bank account of the Statue of Unity in your Vadodara branch. The receipt of the cash received is issued to the administration of SoU and is periodically reconciled with the cash deposit entries made in the bank account. “
During the reconciliation carried out with the HDFC after the easing of the Covid-19 curbs, the SoU auditors noted that the receipts submitted by Writer Business executives on behalf of the bank did not match the actual entries in the account.
“An amount of Rs 5.25 crore was missing, although the receipts in our register showed that the HDFC bank agent had delivered the amount. Agents provide SoU with a receipt on HDFC letterhead. The issue was raised with the bank, which proactively launched an investigation, the official said. “
Narmada district collector DA Shah, who is also the executive director of the Statue of Unity, said that following the discovery of the alleged theft, a committee was formed that included officials from the district administration, HDFC bank, the Statue of Unity and the HDFC Bank agent.
Shah said: “For the collection of cash from the SoU management and for its deposit into the bank account, HDFC Bank has contracted Writer Safeguard Private Limited. This is purely their internal arrangement and the SoU Administration has nothing to do with it. Therefore, HDFC bank is solely responsible for this transaction process. The committee met and reviewed the records and it was established that the cash was indeed delivered to the bank. So, according to the agreement, the bank has credited the amount to SoU’s account along with the interest, while they will resolve their dispute with their agent on their own. “
Vani Doodhat, Kevadia Deputy Superintendent of Police, said: “SoU has provided us with a large number of daily receipts and transaction vouchers, which we are reviewing. We will call agency staff for questioning after identifying the employees who handled the money during that period. “
“Staff of Writers Business Services Private Ltd.”, mentioned as a defendant in the complaint, has been registered under Sections 406 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for criminal breach of trust) 407 (criminal breach of trust by carrier), 408 (criminal breach of trust by the secretary or servant), 409 (criminal abuse of trust by a public servant, or by a banker, merchant or agent), 420 (deceiving and dishonestly inducing the delivery of assets), 418 (cheating with knowledge that a person may suffer a wrongful loss whose interest the offender is obliged to protect), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).
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