Driver booked for defrauding Farhan Akhtar’s family of nearly ₹12 L

The police said the case came to light when Diya Bhatia, 36, the manager of Akhtar and his mother Honey Irani, noticed that one of the family’s drivers had been filling in 62 litres of fuel in their Star Maruti Suzuki, despite the tank capacity of the car being only 35 litres

MUMBAI: The police have booked a driver for defrauding the family of actor-producer Farhan Akhtar of nearly ₹12 lakh through their fuel credit cards. The police said that the accused would swipe the credit cards and take back the money in cash from an employee of a fuel station in Bandra.

Farhan Akhtar will play athlete Milkha Singh.

The police said the case came to light when Diya Bhatia, 36, the manager of Akhtar and his mother Honey Irani, noticed that one of the family’s drivers had been filling in 62 litres of fuel in their Star Maruti Suzuki, despite the tank capacity of the car being only 35 litres.

According to the police, the actor and his family stay at Turner Road in Bandra and employ two drivers, Naresh Singh, 35, a resident of Cosmo Colony, Bandra, and Manoj Kanhaiyaram, a resident of Rahivasi Sewa Mandal. When Bhatia was checking the bank statements of fuel cards used by the drivers on September 29, she realised that Singh had been consistently filling 62 litres in their car, despite the capacity being significantly less.

She then reported the matter to Akhtar and his mother who summoned Singh, the police said, adding that when the accused was confronted, he confessed to committing the fraud. He told them that since 2022, he had been using the three cards handed to him by the earlier driver of the family.

The police said, “He would fill petrol near Bandra Talao in a fuel station at SV Road and had a tie-up with Arun Bahadur Singh, an employee at the pump. At times, he would just swipe the card at the pump without filling any petrol in the Akhtar family vehicles. Singh would give the employee a commission ranging between ₹1000 and ₹1500 for returning the fuel money in cash.”

The police said the owners suspect the driver has so far siphoned off nearly ₹12 lakh, and they have registered a complaint under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust) and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against him.