Mumbai: The honorary consul of the Maldives, Bobby Mohanty, 56, has been allegedly cheated by his peon. Mohanty is also the chairman of Tech Engineering Company and runs Bobby Mohanty Foundation Trust for underprivileged persons. His office is in Andheri West.
The police said the accused peon, Srikant Gadtiya, 24, has been working with Mohanty for the past six years. He allegedly forged his signature on a cheque and credited Rs1.5 lakh to his own account. He once again tried to credit Rs5 lakh to his account using another cheque with his employer’s forged signatures but was caught.
During the probe, Gadtiya was found with 55 cheques bearing Mohanty’s forged signature. The Amboli police registered an FIR against him on June 4 for cheating. The police said Gadtiya was residing at Mohanty’s Juhu residence and handled documentation related work, including depositing cheques in banks.
On June 4, Mohanty received a call from DCB Bank’s Andheri branch to confirm if his trust had issued a cheque of Rs5 lakh to Gadtiya. When he denied, a bank staffer sent a photo of the cheque, which appeared to bear his signature. Mohanty identified the signature as forged and instructed the bank not to clear it. The bank official also informed him that, on June 3, Gadtiya had successfully deposited a Rs1.5 lakh cheque from Tech Engineering Company into his account.
When Mohanty confronted Gadtiya, he admitted to forging signatures, claiming he needed money for his niece’s surgery. He confessed to forging 55 cheques, which Mohanty recovered from him. Polic have registered case against Gadtiya.
