NAGPUR: Sitabuldi police arrested a Tapas Ghosh on Tuesday night for deceiving Mukta Bobde, mother of the Chief Justice of India, Sharad Bobde, for a sum of more than 2.50 million rupees.
Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar confirmed this to TOI and said that the investigation has been turned over to the economic crimes wing of the Nagpur City Police. DCP Vinita Sahu will oversee the investigation, he added.
The Bobde family owns the Seasons Lawn in Akashwani Square on Civil Lines, which is rented out for outdoor celebrations such as weddings, receptions or other functions. Mukta Bobde had appointed Ghosh as lawn caretaker about 13 years ago. He was hired with a monthly salary of Rs 9,000. In addition to this, Ghosh received 2,500 rupees as an incentive for each booking.
However, taking advantage of Bobde’s old age, Ghosh and his wife did not deposit the entire amount collected from the lawn rental.
Embezzlement came to the fore after the lockdown was imposed due to the Covid pandemic and many customers, who had reserved the lawn for marriage ceremonies, requested a refund of the reservation amount. As Ghosh did not refund the reservation amount, many approached the older Bobde and complained about not getting the reservation amount back.
During an internal investigation by Bobde, it was revealed that Ghosh did not deposit all of the income generated from the lawn rental for the past two and a half years. The amount embezzled comes to around Rs2.50 crore. Could be more, said the PC.
In many cases, Ghosh did not even issue receipts to customers despite having rented the lawn for wedding functions. It is also revealed that you have not maintained the receipt stubs properly.
Not only this, Ghosh had also pocketed thousands of rupees spent to install a solar plant on the premises. For this purpose, Ghosh had taken money from Bobde, but did not pay the amount to the company that performed the work. Similarly, he also misled Bobdes by not paying thousands of rupees spent on some manufacturing work inside the lawn, even though he had made the same claim from the owner, “said Kumar.
Bobde filed a complaint with the Sitabuldi police on August 29 this year against Ghosh and others. Ghosh had also submitted false medical certificates from Bobde senior to the bank requesting that his thumb print instead of his signature be considered for transactions.
“On the basis of the FIR, we have registered a case under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 470, 471 read with the IPC Section and we arrested Ghosh. Ghosh’s wife has been named a co-defendant, but has not yet been arrested. The Sitabuldi police brought Ghosh to court and he was held in custody until December 16.
The PC said no recovery has been made so far, while a search operation is being carried out at Ghosh’s home.
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