A case has been registered against a representative of a company in Maharashtra's Latur district for allegedly giving fake bank guarantees of more than ₹1 crore to the Panvel Municipal Corporation for securing contracts for maintenance projects, police said on Tuesday.
Between November 17, 2022, and February 26, 2024, the engineering company was awarded contracts for the maintenance, repair and renovation of all public toilets within the Panvel Municipal Corporation limits and for the repair and renovation of sewage pipelines in the Kharghar area of Navi Mumbai, an official from Panvel town police station said.
The contracts required the company to furnish bank guarantees of ₹1,32,63,229. During verification by the civic body, the bank guarantees were found to be fake, the official said.
Based on a complaint by the civic body's sanitation department chief, a case was registered on Monday against the company's representative under various Indian Penal Code sections for cheating and forgery, he said.
A probe was on into the case.
Bank fraud
Earlier in January, Police arrested two persons for the alleged embezzlement of ₹22.87 crore from a nationalised bank in Maharashtra’s Latur district, an official said.
According to tehsildar Mahesh Parandekar, who is the complainant in the case, an order was issued to distribute funds under the government’s Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, a water conservation project, a police official said.
Accordingly, two demand drafts were given to water conservation officers to disburse the amounts of ₹12,27,297 and ₹41,06,610 through RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement).
When relevant documents were submitted to the bank, it was found that the balance in the account was only Rs 96,559, police inspector Sanjivan Mirkale said.
An audit was then conducted through which an alleged embezzlement Rs 22.87 crore came to light, he said.
