Navi Mumbai: The Kalamboli police have booked eight people, including a police constable working in the headquarters and staffers and owner of a petrol pump for cheating the police department of around ₹6.83 lakh by forging and submitting fake petrol bills and usurping the money.
“The inquiry was started around a month and a half ago after one of the staff found discrepancies in the bills,” said Abhijit Shivthare, deputy commissioner of police. He found one of the digits of a vehicle number submitted to be wrong and eventually did a reverse investigation and found that the bill was fake.”
He said that they have also initiated a departmental enquiry against three officers for administrative negligence as were responsible for the supervision of the work.
The accused constable, Santosh Mhatre, has been suspended from the force after the incident came to light.
“For impartial investigations, the case is now being investigated by the crime branch,” Shivthare added.
Mhatre, who is working in the motor transport department of the police headquarters, printed 2 fake receipt books, he said, adding that he then colluded with the petrol pump employees and started making fake receipts.
“Mhatre would secretly enter the superior’s office when no one is around and fraudulently use the stamps on the receipt and then submit it to the petrol pump. Around 20 per cent of the bill amount is then paid by the accused in the petrol pump to Mhatre and then the bill is submitted to headquarters,” said Shivthare.
The investigation has revealed that a scam for a total of 7,074 litres of fuel was carried out during a period of six months from February 1 to July 15, 2022. However, after the information about the fake fuel receipt bill scam came to light, the Police Commissionerate withheld the amount of ₹3.97 lakh of petrol pump bills.
The other accused in the case from the petrol pump who are booked have been identified as Ashish Tiwari, Govind Chauhan, Vinayak Mhatre, Bharat Sakpal, Kashinath Bahiram, Manager Rajendra Alim Chandani and Supervisor Rajesh Prajapati.