The five were produced before the magistrate court Tuesday, which remanded them in police custody till Thursday.
THE NUMBER of people allegedly involved in siphoning of money from The Times of India using fraudulent means has gone up to 91. Initially complainant Derick D’Sa, the newspaper’s Associate Executive Editor, had named 78 people who were paid for their “contribution” to the paper even though they had never written for it.
On Tuesday, he moved an application before the magistrate’s court stating that they had found another 13 names who too had allegedly been paid but had never contributed to the paper. Several people have been arrested after D’Sa lodged a complaint against assistant Amit Mayekar, who is alleged to have made payments totalling Rs 15.07 crore over four years to “part-time contributors who apparently never wrote for the newspaper”.
Prosecutor Rajendra Suryavanshi said, “An application was moved by the complainant in the case stating that they have found another 13 people to whom money had been paid inspite of no contributions by them to any editions of the newspaper. This takes the total number of people in whose name money had been siphoned of to 91.”
An officer linked to the probe said of the 78 people named, so far they have found evidence against 28, who have been arrested. Five accused, including Mayekar, are in police custody.
The five were produced before the magistrate court Tuesday, which remanded them in police custody till Thursday.