Mumbai: N M Joshi Marg police have booked the principal of a Nashik school and two sales executives of an educational publisher for their alleged involvement in the illegal sale of textbooks and pocketing Rs 35 lakh.
While Chetna Education Ltd’s salesmen Jitendra Salve and Santosh Jagtapare are on the run, the Bombay high court has granted the principal, Chitra Gaste, anticipatory bail after she cited an old email stating her willingness to return Rs 8 lakh.
Salve and Jagtapare were in charge of textbook sales to schools and booksellers in Nashik and Ratnagiri districts, respectively.
The fraud came to light when Saili More, who oversees sales transactions at Chetna Education Ltd, found discrepancies in the outstanding dues, said investigating officer S Deshmane. An internal inquiry found that Salve inflated the purchase order from Jumma Masjid Charitable Trust International Schools — at J M City Campus, Wadala Road and Nashik, sold books in the open market and misappropriated a total Rs 26.5 lakh. In Ratnagiri, Jagtapare embezzled Rs 8.1 lakh using the same modus operandi. Deshmane said Salve colluded with Ghaste who claimed that her school owed no money despite previously acknowledging a Rs 10 lakh bill.
Despite repeated demands, when the trio did not return the missing funds, More approached police, who registered an FIR under BNS sections related to criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
