HC grants bail to Senso Creations’ former production manager

Former production manager at Senso Creations, Dimple Shah, has been granted bail by the Bombay High Court after being accused of misappropriating ₹3.14 crore from the company. Shah allegedly inflated bills and threatened artisans to siphon off money for personal use. She has agreed not to create any third-party rights in her properties and not to withdraw ₹18 lakh in postal investments. The court has ordered her release on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has granted bail to Dimple Shah, former production manager at the ethnic wear label Senso Creations, booked for allegedly misappropriating around ₹3.14 crore from the firm and splurging the money on foreign trips.

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The fraud came to light after the frequency of Shah’s foreign trips increased and her bosses suspected something amiss in the accounts. Their inquiry revealed that the production manager inflated the bills of the artisans and by threatening the artisans or in connivance with them, the accused took back major portions of the amounts paid to the artisans in this manner. She was accused of siphoning off ₹3.14 crore from her employer and was eventually arrested on August 31, 2023.

She had moved to the high court after her regular bail plea was rejected by the sessions court. An additional public prosecutor and the complainant’s lawyer opposed her bail plea contending that it was a clear case of forgery and cheating as Shah forced the artisans to inflate the bills and thereupon siphoned money which legitimately belonged to her employer.

The accused, however, assured the high court that she would not create any third-party rights in two flats owned by her – one in Vile Parle and the other in Andheri East and also agreed to not withdraw an amount of ₹18 lakh in postal investments. Pointing out that her fixed deposits of ₹28 lakh were already frozen by the police, the woman told the court that the police were free to attach whatever other movable or immovable property they may find in her name and she would not object to any such action.

Against this backdrop, justice MS Karnik granted bail to Shah primarily taking into consideration that she had no criminal antecedents and her prolonged detention in custody was not necessary. The single judge bench ordered the accused to be released on a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and one or more sureties in the same amount.

The court has also restrained her from leaving Mumbai without prior permission from the trial court and intimation to the investigating officer of the case. On July 16, 2023, the Dadar police booked Shah under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 477-A (falsification of accounts) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.