Palghar : A CA-cum-trustee of a Virar school has filed a complaint with the Tulinj police station, Nalasopara (East), against his own counterparts for allegedly cheating and forgery to the tune of Rs 60 lakh of school funds. A high level inquiry has been initiated though no arrests have been made till now.
St Peter Convent School, located in Wavtepada, Virar is being run by the Samson Education and Charitable Trust, Nalasopara and has around 4000 students studying there till STD Xth. The trust initially had only four trustees namely Joyson Sebastian Peter (46), his wife Jasmine Sampada (42), the complainant, Milind Mehta and his wife Sonal. Mehta, who himself is a CA, said, “I started my own investigations in the school fraud as I was getting vague details and reports. Then I realised that Peter had appointed a Gulbarga-based accounting firm for the school. Later, he started appointing his relatives and friends in the school which I wasn’t aware of.” He further added that Peter opened an account with the Kotak Mahindra Bank on October 15, 2015 to transfer funds from the original school bank account which is in the Bassein Catholic Cooperative Bank. For the last couple of years, school funds and fee paid by the students were transferred to this new bank account. I was abused when I tried to get clarity on this and hence I filed a complaint with the Tulinj police station after my investigation. Around Rs 60 lakh have been transferred to the new bank account in the last 2 years. Bogus trustees’ names and documents were created and even submitted to the Charity Commissioner, Thane, to sideline me and take over the school and its properties.
The cops confirmed about a case being filed of cheating and forgery against seven people namely Peter, his wife Jasmine Sampada, the fake trustees, Brian Michael of Kerala, Sandesh Jadkar of Mira Road, Victor Lobo of Nandakhal, Romeo Peter and the school accountant A Ekka.
