Fresh FIR against GCA officials for siphoning funds worth Rs1 crore

NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The Economic Offences Cell (EOC) of the Goa police has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against former Goa Cricket Association (GCA) president Dayanand Narvekar, current president Chetan Dessai, secretary Vinod Phadke and the then treasurer Akbar Mulla in connection with alleged siphoning of Rs 1 crore.
Incidentally, this is the second such FIR filed by the police against GCA officials in a fraud case.
According to police, the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy and deposited cheque of Rs 1 crore in a fraudulent bank account and thereby misappropriated funds for TV subsidy, sent by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to GCA, thus cheating the GCA to the tune of Rs 1 crore.
The FIR has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Apart from this, there is also a similar complaint of fraud amounting to Rs 8 lakh against the accused and the EOC is conducting a preliminary inquiry into it.
According to police, there is documentary evidence and the accused are likely to be arrested. “We are not ruling out involvement of more accused persons. However, it will be clear during the course of investigation,” said Superintendent of Police Priyanka Kashyap.
According to police, a complaint in this regard was lodged by a former Ranji cricketer Nilesh Prabhudesai, a resident of Benaulim in South Goa. The incident, according to the complainant, had occurred in 2006-07 when the accused Narvekar was the president of GCA, Dessai was the secretary, Phadke was the treasurer and Mulla was a member.
During the course of investigation, police learnt that the accused persons opened a fraudulent account of GCA in Shiroda Urban Co-operative Credit Society, IDC Kundaim branch, and deposited the cheque of Rs 1 crore. Further, the cheque was sent to ICICI Bank, Ponda Branch, for deposit and clearance and further in a short period, the accused siphoned the money for their personal gain. According to police, Mulla was reportedly heading the Shiroda Urban Co-operative Credit Society at the time of the incident in 2006-07.
Incidentally, Dessai, Phadke and Mulla are also accused in another alleged fraud of over Rs 3 crore in the GCA in which EOC had registered an FIR in June, this year. The EOC is likely to file charge sheet in connection with the case shortly.