CA dupes Dadar carpentry firm of ₹39.96L, booked

CA booked for cheating carpentry firm of ₹39.96 lakh in Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial project. Case registered under IPC sections including breach of trust and forgery.

MUMBAI: A 32-year-old chartered accountant (CA) was booked on Thursday for allegedly cheating a carpentry firm to the tune of ₹39.96 lakh. The police said that the firm is engaged in carpentry work at Indu Mills in Dadar West, where construction is underway for the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

HT Image

According to the Shivaji Park police, a case has been registered against CA Preetam Deepak Mishra, 32, from Bhayandar. The complainant in the case is Baliram Maurya, 30, a sub-contractor who runs the company that has taken carpentry work of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial from Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited.

“The CA was appointed to handle the monthly GST payments on the funds received. Every month, funds were transferred to the CA, and he would send a receipt of the GST payment to the complainant via phone,” said a police officer.

From 2018 to 2023, the complainant had transferred a total of ₹50.44 lakh to the accused, who provided receipts for the GST payments. “However, recently, the complainant received a call from Shapoorji Pallonji, informing him that his company’s GST had not been paid. Upon checking the GST account, the complainant found a pending GST amounting to ₹35.96 lakh. Similarly, the GST for his wife’s company, for which payments were made to Mishra, was also pending. While the complainant had transferred ₹10.82 lakh to Mishra, only ₹6.82 lakh had been remitted to the government, with the remaining amount being retained by Mishra,” said the police officer.

The complainant had paid a total of ₹61.26 lakh to Mishra from 2018 to 2023. Mishra paid ₹21.30 lakh to the Income Tax department in the form of GST, thus cheating the complainant out of ₹39.96 lakh.

“We have registered a case under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document),” said the police officer.”