Accountant booked for defrauding Farhan Akhtar’s production company CEO

The police said that the alleged fraud came to light in 2024, when the company’s chief finance officer (CFO), Jaswant Singh Hinduja, inquired about Ramchandani’s pending GST payments

MUMBAI: A former accountant of actor Farhan Akhtar’s film production company was booked on Wednesday for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for Goods and Services Tax (GST) payment of the firm’s chief executive officer, causing a loss of ₹65 lakh.

Personal-agenda-Farhan-Akhtar

According to the police, Bhagwan Kaskar, an accountant who worked in the firm’s accounts department, was responsible for handling GST filings for some individuals associated with the firm. Vishal Ramchandani, 39, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Farhan Akhtar’s production firm, Excel Entertainment Pvt Ltd, had also entrusted Kaskar with paying his personal GST dues and transferred the amounts in instalments to his bank account. Kaskar left the company in 2021 but continued to handle Ramhandani’s GST payments.

The police said that the alleged fraud came to light in 2024, when the company’s chief finance officer (CFO), Jaswant Singh Hinduja, inquired about Ramchandani’s pending GST payments, to which he responded that the payments had been made regularly through Kaskar. Suspecting discrepancies, Ramchandani questioned Kaskar, who allegedly gave evasive replies and assured him that the matter would be resolved. On the advice of his chartered accountant, Pradeep Mishra, Ramchandani obtained access to his GST portal from Kaskar. Records from 2019 to 2024 revealed that only ₹9.75 lakh had been deposited with the government between 2018 and October 2024, against approximately ₹56 lakh transferred to Kaskar for GST payments.

Kaskar had allegedly misappropriated ₹46.24 lakh. When confronted in the presence of the CFO, Kaskar reportedly admitted to having deposited only a portion of the amount and using the rest for personal expenses. He reportedly wrote down the confession and also promised to repay the amount, said a police officer.

Kaskar later transferred ₹2 lakh in October 2024 and asked for time to return the rest of the amount, but allegedly failed to repay. With unpaid tax, interest and penalties, the total GST liability has now risen to around ₹65 lakh, Ramchandani told the police.

After Kaskar broke multiple promises of repayment and kept seeking more time, Ramchandani approached the police on Wednesday, after which a case was registered against Kaskar under Sections 316(2) (cheating) and 318(2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.