Vadodara: Investigation into the cheating case filed by HDFC Bank against its cash collection agency has revealed that two of their staffers have been picked up for questioning by the Kevadia police. The police said that involvement of some more staffers could not be ruled out at this moment.
Police started issuing notices to staff of Writer Business Services Pvt Ltd (WBSL) that has been accused of siphoning off Rs 5.24 crores from the portion of revenues generated at the Statue of Unity (SoU) between November 2018 and March 2020. The cash was mainly entry tickets and parking fees.
“We are issuing notices to the concerned staffers from both the agency and HDFC to gather more details. Also, there is a huge amount of documentary evidence that has to be examined to unravel the fraud. The concerned agencies have been asked to provide us with all the documents,” said Vani Dudhat, DySP, Kevadia.
She added that the staffers of the WBSL and HDFC have also been asked to appear before the investigating officials for questioning. When asked about recovering the siphoned cash, Dudhat told TOI, “We will be able to trace the cash and recover it once we nab those involved.”
Investigators are also following the money trail to track the accused.
HDFC had hired WBSL to collect cash from SoU in Kevadia and deposit it in their bank account in the city. But last month, the bank officials noticed a difference between the cash deposit slips and the amount mentioned in the bank account of SoU. The bank then began internal investigation and learnt that employees of the cash collection and management agency were involved in siphoning off the cash. They collected cash from the SoU but didn’t deposit the full amount in the bank.
HDFC then registered a complaint of cheating and criminal conspiracy against WBSL on November 30.