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A senior official of the country’s largest travel house - Thomas Cook - has approached the police after one of the company’s former staffers allegedly misused the company’s funds.
The employee, after committing the fraud, tendered his resignation. The incident came to light a year later after the suspect was relieved of his duties from the company. The case has been transferred to Fraud and Misappropriation Squad of the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd is the largest integrated travel and travel-related financial services company in the country offering a broad spectrum of services that include foreign exchange, corporate and leisure travel, and insurance. The main office is located on M.G. Road with branch offices and franchises across the city.
Harshad Donde, the south region head, global enterprise business, has accused a former employee of the company, B.M. Shiva Kumar (32), a resident of Jala hobli in Devanahalli. Mr Kumar was appointed in the company as executive, credit control and started working since February 15, 2010 at the main office and also at the company’s client site at Biocon, as Thomas Cook’s representative, a CCB officer said.
It is said that on April 6, 2011, a customer booked air tickets at the Biocon site by paying the full amount of Rs 55,500. The same was allegedly received by the company representative S. Prabhakar and sent to be handed over to Mr Shiva Kumar at the M.G. Road office along with other cheques, through one Ashok, after making entries in the delivery book.
The same day, Mr Kumar received the cash of Rs 55,500 and other cheques from the delivery boy, after attesting his signature. Mr Kumar handed over the cheques to the accounts department but the cash component was shown as outstanding amount in the accounts, the officer said.
The misappropriation came to light when the company’s senior vice-president sent an email on March 20, 2012 to the company representative at Biocon about the outstanding amount of Rs 55,500. However, it is said that the complainant learnt that the customer who had booked air tickets at Biocon site had paid the full amount.
An internal enquiry of the staff members revealed that Mr Kumar had allegedly received the cash on April 6, 2011 and failed to hand over the same to the accounts department and thereby misappropriated the company cash for his personal gains. It is further said that Mr Kumar has resigned from his job on September 7, 2011 and was relieved himself of his duties after exactly a month, the officer said.
“We are on the lookout for the suspect. Going by the company’s records, he was earlier staying at Devanahalli. He may have changed even the place of residence”, he added.
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