Mumbai: A 29-year-old woman, Vrushali Bamane was held by the police for swindling her boss for over Rs 16 crore by tempering his accounting books. Now, they are even more amazed to learn how she ingeniously invested the black money and property worth crores across the state. But here’s the most remarkable bit — Bamane, who is a 12th pass, managed all this without ever learning accounting.
Bamane worked in the company for over seven years to gain trust of her colleagues and, later, breached that very trust for monetary gain. Since 2013, she had quietly filched Rs 16.32 crore from the company’s bank accounts, transferring the money in accounts belonging to her parents, husband, sibling and relatives. But the money didn’t just sit in accounts.
two-storey bungalow in Satara
Police sources said Bamane had constructed a two-storey bungalow named ‘Goleshwar’ in Karad, in Satara district. The Rs 5-crore bungalow has seven large, fully furnished rooms and a terrace pool. Apart from this, Bamane also bought three plush apartments and two mid-range flats in Dombivli, each estimated to be worth R50-60 lakh in. She also spent heavily on interior designing, said cops. Furthermore, she used the money to buy several fancy cars and bikes, gifting them to her family members. All vehicles have the same registration number — 3777 — but from different RTOs. The accused believed that the number was lucky for her.
“We were expecting to find the money stashed in an account or somewhere else, but were shocked by the way she utilised the money to amass all these properties,” said a cop from Azad Maidan police, who had arrested Bamane earlier this month.
But eventually, her luck ran out and she was arrested. “After her arrest we made searches at her residence and other properties and seized gold and silver jewellery, expensive watches and cash, totally worth over Rs 18 lakh,” said an officer privy to investigation.
They identified at least eight bank accounts belonging to Bamane but did not find much cash stored there, as she would withdraw money through the ATM and would never leave big amounts in the accounts.
“Our officers managed to obtained information from the arrested accused and subsequently we made a sizable recovery in the case,” said DCP (zone 1) Manojkumar Sharma.
Bamane, who has been booked under section 408 (criminal breach of trust) of (IPC, had moved an application for bail, but police had opposed it. The court will hear her application on Thursday.
List of assets discovered by the police till now includes:
Two-storey bungalow with a terrace and swimming pool in Karad, Satara
- Rs 5 crore
Two-storey bungalow with a terrace and swimming pool in Karad, Satara
- Rs 2-2.5 crore
Five flats in Dombivli
Hyundai Elantra
- Rs 22 lakh
Hyundai Elantra
Mahindra XUV
- Rs 16.55 lakh
Mahindra XUV
- Rs 22 lakh
Royal Enfield Bullet, Thunderbird
Honda CBR bike
- Rs 2.13 lakh
Honda CBR bike
- Rs 18.23 lakh seized gold-silver jewellery, branded watches, cash
There are more properties and stashes of money that the cops are yet to seize and go through, so the tally of assets is likely to go higher. For instance, the cops are yet to seize a prime property of her in Thane, but have learnt that she paid Rs 1 crore just in token amount for it.
Investigators also found that Bamane and her husband Sachin also spent lavishly on travel. “The accused and her family members toured Kerala, Rajasthan and other places and also spent on adventures like helicopter rides, etc,” said a police source, adding that Bamane had also applied for a passport so she could go on foreign trips.
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