I-T clerk arrested in cheating case

The city police on Friday arrested a 26-year-old computer operator-cum-clerk with the Swargate office of Income Tax department for allegedly depositing a department cheque of Rs 21.5 lakh in her own account and withdrawing Rs 6.35 lakh from it.

The city police on Friday arrested a 26-year-old computer operator-cum-clerk with the Swargate office of Income Tax department for allegedly depositing a department cheque of Rs 21.5 lakh in her own account and withdrawing Rs 6.35 lakh from it.

The Swargate police have identified the accused as Sheela Santosh Chiniwar,a resident of Ghulenagar on Sinhagad Road. A complaint in this regard was lodged by Income Tax Officer Premlal Roopchand Laddha (56). The magistrate court remanded her in police custody till Sunday.

As per the complaint,the department officials suspect Chiniwar to have siphoned off the money sometime between May 30 and August 31 last year. Senior inspector Ram Pathare of Swargate police station said,The accused was supposed to deposit the department cheque of Rs 21.5 lakh at the Tilak Road branch of State Bank of India. However,she deposited the cheque in her own account. The transaction shows that she has even withdrawn Rs 6.35 between July 8 and August 29 last year. During the internal audits,the fraud came to the notice of some of the officials who lodged the complaint a couple of days ago. We arrested her immediately after the complaint.

Chiniwar has been booked under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC.

Inspector Pathare said,The accused worked on contract basis. We are yet to find out how exactly she managed to keep the fraud secret for so long. PSI P M Shelke is investigating the case.

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