Duo Held For Defrauding Pune Travel Company Of ₹1.35 Crore With Fake Documents

A shocking incident has come to light where two individuals, working as managers at a travel company in Pune's Aundh, cheated the company of ₹1.35 crore.

They were organising tours abroad, and during this process, they created fake stamps and letterheads of the company and took money into their own accounts. The incident took place between 2021 and May 2, 2024.

The accused have been identified as Vipul Navgire (30, resident of Tingre Nagar) and Pankaj Mele (38, resident of Moshi).

According to the police, the victim, Kunal Nitin Patil (34, resident of Sahkarnagar), runs a travel company that organises tours abroad. Navgire and Mele were working as managers in Patil's travel company. Navgire gained Patil's trust and, taking advantage of this, created dummy stamps and letterheads in the name of the company. The duo pretended to be genuine and signed documents without authority.

By showing the fake documents to customers, they managed to transfer the money directly into their bank accounts under the pretext of booking tickets for foreign trips and other official work.

Moreover, it was found that they took money from customers who had gone on tours to Bangkok and Vietnam.

The fraud was uncovered after the company received multiple complaints. Both have embezzled as much as ₹1.35 crore over the last four years.

A complaint has been filed at the Chaturshringi Police Station under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).