An accountant working with a private pharmacy college in Faridabad was arrested on Saturday for allegedly embezzling fees worth Rs 7.46 lakh paid by students, police said.
The accused, Dharmnishth Patel (39), was arrested from Chhainsa police station following a complaint filed by Amit Kumar (46), chairperson of the CBS College of Pharmacy and Technology. During questioning, Patel admitted that he used the money to recover losses he had incurred in online gaming, said police.
In a complaint filed on Saturday, Kumar alleged that Patel misappropriated the fees paid in cash by issuing cash payment receipts to students but did not deposit the amount into the college’s bank account. Instead, he manipulated records to show these cash payments as online transactions, which were never credited to the college.
The discrepancy came to light when the college’s fee register was reconciled with online payment records, police added.
“During an internal audit, one instance of payment not being credited was flagged… We then came to know of the fraud… We will conduct background checks and verification henceforth for posts like accountants too,” Kumar told The Indian Express on Monday.
Patel has been booked under Section 316(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (criminal breach of trust by a clerk or servant entrusted with property).
A resident of Belsadi at Devkali in Uttar Pradesh, Patel stayed at Sector 3 in Faridabad. He had joined the college as an accountant six months ago, police said. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him to judicial custody on Monday.
