Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde's mother was duped to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore allegedly by the caretaker of a family property in Nagpur, a police official said on Wednesday.
The accused, Tapas Ghosh (49), was arrested on Tuesday night and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nagpur police is looking into the matter under the supervision of DCP Vinita Sahu, Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said, according to Times of India.
The official also said that the Bobde family owns 'Season Lawn', the property located adjoining their residence near Akashwani Square in Civil Lines, which has been rented out to host celebrations like wedding, reception and various events.
Bills forged
Mukta Arvind Bobde, in his ninties, had appointed Ghosh as caretaker of the lawn some 13 years ago. He was hired on a monthly remuneration of Rs 9,000. Besides this, Ghosh was given Rs 2,500 as incentive for every booking.
However, taking advantage of Bobde's old age, Ghosh and his wife did not deposit all the amount collected from renting out the lawn. The accused also forged bills to manipulate the maintainance charges, according to DCP Sahu.
The embezzlement came to fore after lockdown was imposed due to Covid pandemic and many clients, who had booked the lawn for marriage ceremonies, sought refund of the booking amount. As Ghosh failed to refund the booking amount, many approached the senior Bobde and complained about not getting the booking amount back.
During an internal inquiry by Bobde, it was revealed that Ghosh did not deposit entire revenue generated through renting of the lawn for the last two-and-a-half years. The embezzled amount comes to around Rs 2.50 crore. It could be more, Kumar added.
Wife co-accused, booked
When the fraud came to light, the police formed the SIT which includes officers from the Economic Offences Wing (EoW). On late Tuesday night, an FIR was registered under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 470, 471 of the IPC at the Sitabuldi Police Station and was arrested by the police, the police commissioner said.
Ghosh's wife has been named as co-accused, but not arrested yet. Search has been conducted at the residence of Ghosh but no recovery has been made so far, the police said.
