Charkop school principal booked for siphoning ₹80 lakh from students’ fees

Principal of Kandivali school booked for siphoning off ₹80 lakh from students' fees. FIR filed after court order. Investigation underway.

Principal of a school in Kandivali West has been booked for allegedly siphoning off ₹80 lakh from the students’ fees in the last three years, police said and added the FIR followed an order issued by a court.

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The complainant is Pandurang Maruti Pandagade, 71, a trustee of Rashtriya Bahuuddeshiya Samaj Seva Mandal that runs Priyadarshini School in section 7, Charkop.

According to Pandagade’s statement, Prakash Mulchand Makhija was appointed as the principal in 2010.

Pandagade said during a review of the school’s bank account statements in 2023, they found that the fees paid by the students had not been deposited for three years. Instead, the money had been deposited in the accounts of Makhija and his sister, he said.

A further inquiry by the school revealed that in many cases the students were given the account details of Makhija and were asked to deposit their fees directly in that account. The trustees also received complaints from students that the principal had been taking money to give them higher marks, the statement said.

Pandagade further said the management issued Makhija a show cause notice, but he did not reply to it.

“The rent for the premises has not been paid to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the last three years, which comes to ₹18 lakh, and as a result, the civic body has sealed the building,” Pandagade said in his statement to the police.

The complainant said after the cheating was discovered, they filed a complaint at Charkop police station. When the police refused to register an FIR, they approached the metropolitan magistrate court in Borivali on Wednesday and as per its order a case was registered on the same day.

“We have registered a case of cheating under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code against the principal and his sister. We are verifying the claims of the complainant,” a police officer from Charkop police station said.