Transport firm owner booked for cheating top adhesive brand of 11.57 crore

ByVijay Kumar Yadav
Updated on: Jul 21, 2022 12:57 AM IST

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police unit has registered an FIR based on the complaint of a known adhesive and construction chemical brand which claimed that a goods transport firm duped them to the tune of ₹11

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police unit has registered an FIR based on the complaint of a known adhesive and construction chemical brand which claimed that a goods transport firm duped them to the tune of 11.57 crore.

HT Image
HT Image

According to the complaint, the transport firm presented them with around 1,544 bogus invoices and received payment for the services that they never provided. One of the former employees of the complainant firm was also found to be involved in the fraud.

Sunil Burde, 59, vice-president (domestic accounts), Pidilite Industries Ltd. on Tuesday, filed a complaint against Govind Singh, owner of Navi Mumbai-based transport firm Monica Roadways and Uday Khopkar, former senior executive, logistic section, Pidilite Industries, among others.

The complainant had been taking transport services from Monica Roadways for the past few years. The transport firm would provide the service of transporting raw material to the complainant from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to the company’s Bhiwandi warehouse, and also for transporting the raw material from the warehouse to the company’s units.

The task of verification and processing of the bills submitted by the transport firm was outsourced to Teleperformance Global Service Pvt Ltd.

As per the complaint, in December 2021 Teleperformance Global Service sent a report to the company regarding the bills and payments made to Monica Roadways. The report highlighted irregularities related to eight bills presented by Monica Roadways for receiving the payment and suggested that the complainant company should verify the same from their end.

The complainant company initiated an internal probe and found similar irregularities in hundreds of bills submitted in the past couple of years. Following this, the complainant roped in forensic auditor Ernst & Young LLP, which conducted thorough scrutiny and detected the irregularities.

The auditor in their report stated that between January 1, 2020, and January 24, 2022, Monica Roadways presented 1,544 bogus bills and the company had paid a total amount of 11.57 crore against 1538 bogus bills, the EOW said.

The company alleged that Gobind Singh of Monica Roadways had committed the irregularities in connivance with Uday Khopkar, then a senior executive working in the logistics section of the company.

“Khopkar received 50% share in the illegally obtained profit from Pidilite and this ill-gotten money was transferred to Khopkar’s bank accounts. Khopkar, who was involved in the criminal conspiracy, retired from the service on November 30, 2021. The forensic auditor also stated in their report that background checks of Khopkar revealed that his family owns five flats in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar and no bank loans appeared to be taken for purchasing the flats,” the complainant stated in the FIR.

The police have booked Singh and Khopkar under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) 471 (using as genuine a forged), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

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