Two members of trust booked for cheating Maharashtra Waqf board of ₹7.7 crore

PUNE: Two members of a trust attached to the Maharashtra Waqf board were booked for cheating the board in Pune of ₹7

PUNE: Two members of a trust attached to the Maharashtra Waqf board were booked for cheating the board in Pune of ₹7.76 crore in the past one year by posing as office-bearers of a trust. Bundgarden police station filed a case on Friday.

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According to the police, the two men are trustees but the board has accused them of posing as decision-making officials of the trust and taking money meant for the trust.

“They are both trustees, but the board believes that they have duped the trust,” said sub-inspector Tukaram Fadd of Bundgarden police station who is investigating the case.

The Maharashtra government had acquired land belonging to Taboot Inam Endowment trust which is registered with the Waqf Board for a project in Pune. The government was supposed to give around ₹9,64,42,500 to the trust in return and accordingly government had released an amount of ₹7.73 crore to the trust, but upon inquiry later the Waqf board regional officer got to know that the amount did not reach the trust members.

The two men posed as office-bearers of Taboot Inam Endowment trust and allegedly made the officials at the Pune collectorate believe that they were decision-making officials of the trust. They accepted a part of the land remuneration from the collector’s office on behalf of the trust into their personal bank accounts. A demand draft of ₹7,76,98,250 issued on January 2 was deposited on January 4 in a private bank account instead of the trust account, according to the complaint in the case.

The Waqf officials later approached the Bundgarden police. A case was registered under Sections 420, 406, 464, 467, 471, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at Bundgarden police station.