Woman clerk dupes college of Rs 3.77 cr,arrested

The economic offences wing of Pune police on Thursday arrested a 42-year-old woman clerk on charges of siphoning off Rs 3.77 crore from Neville Wadia Institute of Management Studies and Research by misappropriating fee receipts between 2004 and 2010. It suspects that more people are involved in the crime.

Mehejabin Varimani,a resident of Kushlnagar in Bopodi,was arrested by a team led by inspector Ramchandra Dhage on a complaint filed by M M Andar,secretary of the Modern Education Society (MES) that runs institutes like Wadia College and Neville Wadia Institute on the campus. The complaint said Varimani,a clerk with the fee collection desk,had allegedly siphoned off the money either by writing lower amounts on counterfoils,by not making a carbon copy of the receipt or by not giving any receipt at all.

The fraud came to light in mid-2009 after two students complained that they were not given any receipt for money they paid for a prospectus. The name of Varimari cropped up after the accountant probed the matter. An eight-month-long audit revealed that the institute had received just Rs 1.31 crore in the form of fees from 4,744 students instead of over Rs 5 crore. Surprisingly,Varimani returned Rs 43 lakh to the institute.