One held, 8 booked for Rs 2.9cr fraud

Palanpur: At least eight persons, including an accounts officer of the Mehsana district panchayat, were booked after a financial fraud totaling to Rs 2.9 crore was unearthed on Saturday. One employee of the district panchayat office, Kanhaiyalal Patel, was arrested by the local crime branch and handed over to the A-Division police station.
Besides Kanhaiyalal, LCB inspector R S Patel said, the other accused include accounts officer Hitesh Trivedi, Amrut Patel, Kuldip Trivedi, Suresh Patel, Archna Chaudhary, Anilsha Dhel and Dipak Patel.They have been accused of siphoning off Rs 2.9 crore from the bank account of district panchayat by setting up fake companies. They have been booked for criminal breach of trust and forgery. "Currently, all other accused except Patel are on the run," inspector Patel said.
The fraud came to light after Mehsana district development officer (DDO) S K Langa scrutinized the account books himself after he got suspicious of Trivedi's activities. Langa said, "Trivedi, who is also the signing authority on the cheques had floated a bogus company and used to deposit the cheques in that company's account."
First cheque of Rs 84,32,656 was deposited in September last year. The second cheque of Rs 144,86,487 was deposited in November 2016, while third one deposited in name of another bogus company also run by him was to the tune of Rs 60,98,400. Langa said, Trivedi was addicted to betting.