6 Juhu hotel staffers booked for misappropriation charges

The Juhu police registered a case against six staffers of Novotel Hotel, Juhu, for allegedly siphoning off funds from the hotel by either accepting cash or using their personal Unified Payment Interface (UPI) identities and failing to deposit the money with the hotel cashier

MUMBAI: The Juhu police registered a case against six staffers of Novotel Hotel, Juhu, for allegedly siphoning off funds from the hotel by either accepting cash or using their personal Unified Payment Interface (UPI) identities and failing to deposit the money with the hotel cashier. According to police reports, approximately ₹1.6 lakh has been transferred to the bank accounts of the accused staffers.

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“We have filed a case against six staffers, namely Dakshata Koli, 23, a guest service associate; Manan Ghatolia, 22, a food and beverage team leader; Sankesh Shinde, 24, a guest service associate; Aman Chauhan, 23, a food and beverage team leader; Daren Katwar, 25, a guest service associate; and Nikhil Rade, 23, a food and beverage team leader,” said the police officer from the Juhu police station. The case was initiated by Pooja Narkar, Human Resources Manager at the hotel.

The police said that Koli had been employed with the hotel as a guest service associate for the past year and a half. “Her responsibilities included attending to guests visiting the hotel and overseeing the bakery products and other counters at the reception area. On May 21, it was observed that instead of depositing cash received from customers into the hotel’s cash box, she was storing it in other areas. Upon further scrutiny via CCTV cameras, the hotel management found that she was also accepting online payments using her personal UPI account rather than the company’s. At the end of each day, she would take the cash home,” explained a police officer.

Following this, the management conducted an inquiry and discovered that several other employees were also misappropriating hotel funds in a similar manner. “The senior management learned that a total of six individuals were involved in the misconduct. When questioned, Koli disclosed the names of Ghatolia, leading to the revelation of five additional staffers involved. Koli misappropriated ₹40,000, Ghatolia ₹60,000, Sankesh Shinde ₹15,000, Darren Katwar ₹5,000, Nikhil Rade ₹20,000, and Aman Chauhan ₹20,000,” said the police officer.

“Since December 2023, in collusion, the six accused have collectively misappropriated a total of ₹1.6 lakh,” said the police officer, “They have been booked under sections 408 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.”

“We have issued notices to all the accused under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to appear before the police officer for investigations as required,” added a police officer from the Juhu police station.

The police officer further mentioned, “We are in the process of collecting evidence and have also written to the banks of the accused to obtain relevant documents.”