The Mankhurd police on Wednesday arrested the president and the founder chairman of a local government-aided school for allegedly duping its staff to the collective amount of `26.14 lakh by promising to make them permanent employees. Based on the complaint filed by
one of the employees, Vishwas Shiudkar (38), the police arrested the chairman and president of the Bal Vikas High School on charges of cheating.
According to Mr Shiudkar’s statement to the police, he had first applied for the position as a teacher on August 5, 2009 and was called for an interview five days later where he met the institute’s president Raghunath Shinde. “Shinde quoted an amount of `5 lakh to offer me the job, but I said I could generate not more than `2 lakh. He agreed and I gave him the first installment of `50,000 the next day at the Geeta Bhavan Hotel in Chembur. I was also introduced to Imran Yusuf Azmi, the chairman of the school. I then went to my village and borrowed `1.35 lakh from relatives and gave Mr Shinde `1 lakh in two different installments over the next 22 days. I then began working from September 2009, during which I gave an additional `34,000 to Azmi,” he said in his statement. He was later abruptly fired on April 2012 without being absorbed as a permanent staff. Mr Shiudkar then demanded his money back, following which Shinde returned him `25,000 on December 24. However, in January 2013, both Shinde and Azmi said his money could not be returned and began avoiding him. During this period, Mr Shiudkar also learnt about seven other employees from whom the duo had taken around `25 lakh and finally approached the police.
Shiudkar also came across a shocking revelation where he learnt that Azmi had purchased a piece of land in Khadavali along with a Mahindra Scorpio SUV with the money taken from the staffers. “We have arrested the two under Sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC and they have been reman-ded to police custody till September 30 by the court,” said senior PI S.S. Rajput of the Man-khurd police station.