Woman denied pre-arrest bail for duping employer of ₹2 crore

The chief production manager of Senso Creations, Dimple Shah, has been denied anticipatory bail after allegedly misappropriating over ₹2 crore from the company. Shah's parents were granted anticipatory bail as the money was allegedly deposited in their accounts. Shah is accused of diverting the funds into her own account and using it for foreign trips and property purchases. The court rejected her bail plea due to lack of evidence of additional income and multiple foreign trips.

Mumbai: The sessions court recently rejected an anticipatory bail plea of the chief production manager of an ethnic wear label, Senso Creations, booked for allegedly misappropriating more than ₹2 crore from the firm and splurging the money on foreign trips. The court, however, granted anticipatory bail to her parents in whose accounts the money was allegedly deposited.

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The accused, Dimple Shah, 40, was employed with Senso Creations, which has a showroom in Dadar, since August 2014.

Senso Creations is into manufacturing wedding attire for men through various artisans and sells it as a wholesaler in India, England, America, Singapore, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Dubai. Shah’s job was to get the work done through artisans by maintaining their individual accounts.

She used to prepare challans and invoices for the items created by artisans. In the said challans and invoices, she used to make entries in her handwriting of the number of pieces or items prepared by individual artisans and the price of the finished products. The said challans and invoices were used to be approved by the accounts department of the company, and thereafter the payments thereof were used to be made to the artisans concerned through RTGS.

After a few months, the owner noticed that there was a considerable difference in orders placed, manufactured pieces and also payments received from the clients against the orders. Besides, they noticed that Shah was frequently going on foreign trips and also had purchased some properties.

The owners then contacted the artisans to cross-check the challans and invoices prepared by her and soon realized that the artisans were threatened by Shah and that if they failed to follow her instructions, she would not place any orders with them.

The artisans told the company executives that Shah had created excessive bills, and the extra amounts were diverted into her bank account as well as into the accounts of her mother and father.

After this, Shah was asked to produce her and her parent’s account statements, which reflected money received to the tune of ₹2 crore. Besides, it was revealed that there was a money trail from the account of artisans to the account of Shah and her father. Based on the statements of artisans and the bank account statements, the company lodged a complaint on July 17 with the Dadar police station, and the woman was booked for misappropriating company funds.

The court took into consideration these aspects and rejected Shah’s anticipatory bail plea.

“It has to be noted that even if the salary of Shah, including perks, is assumed to be ₹1 lakh per month, her total earnings per year would not be more than ₹12 lakh. There is nothing before the court to show any separate income of her parents. Therefore, it is for Shah to justify how she earned such huge money which had been received from artisans and further diverted it in her account as well as in the bank accounts of her parents,” said the court.

The court added, “Admittedly, Shah had multiple foreign visits. There is absolutely no bonafide explanation thereof with all applicants, and the same speaks volumes. It is, therefore, prima-facie evident that Shah has cheated the company of the informant and misappropriated the company’s money.”