Vadodara: A city-based cash collection and management agency has been booked for siphoning off the revenues collected at the world’s tallest statue - Statue of Unity (SoU).
India’s biggest private lender, HDFC Bank, has registered a complaint of cheating and criminal conspiracy against Writer Business Services Pvt Ltd (WBSL), at Kevadia police station for siphoning off Rs 5.24 crore in 17 months beginning November 2018.
WBSL has been working with HDFC since 2003 and is tasked with collecting cash from the customers and depositing it in their account at the bank. WBSL was given the responsibility of collecting cash from SoU and depositing it in their account at the bank.
According to the complaint filed by HDFC bank’s branch manager, WBSL staffers have been collecting cash from SoU since November 2018 but didn’t deposit the entire amount in the bank. “The money that was collected by the agency included the cash payments made by the tourists for entry to the SoU as well as parking tickets,” said a SoU official.
On November 8, HDFC received an email from an SoU official stating that there was a difference in the amount mentioned in cash deposit slips and that in the bank account. The bank then began internal investigation and learnt that employees of the cash collection agency were involved in cheating. They collected cash from the SoU but didn’t deposit the full amount in the bank.
According to the complainant, the agency employees allegedly siphoned the cash between November 2018 and March 2020. The SoU was closed down for tourists after the lockdown was announced in March. It reopened a month-and-half ago and entry tickets are now being issued only on the basis of online payment.
“We will try to find out who is involved in the cheating and how did the accused siphon off the cash. Further action will be taken once we investigate the case,” said Vani Dudhat, DySP, Kevadia division.
An SoU official said that they won’t suffer any loss as the bank has promised to compensate them in case of any discrepancy. “The money will be deposited in SoU account within the next 24 hours,” a SoU spokesperson said.
The 182-metre tall statue of India’s first home minister, Sardar Patel was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi in October 2018. Since its inauguration, the SoU has become a tourist hub and has been generating revenues in crores.