St Xavier’s clerk, two others get 3 yrs in jail

Ahmedabad: A JMFC court here on Monday sentenced three persons, including a clerk of St Xavier's School, Loyola Hall, to three years' imprisonment for criminal conspiracy to dupe the school.The three persons — clerk Manisha Vasava besides Dhiren Adhikari and Jayesh Vasvani — were also fined Rs 50,000 each. They were accused of siphoning Rs 3.2 crore from the school's bank account. The court, however, acquitted them of forgery charges.
The school complained that Vasava, who had worked at the school for 21 years and had the cheque books the institution's bank accounts, allegedly transferred massive amounts fraudulently over at least six months. It came to light that a total of Rs 2.84 crore was transferred through cheque and RTGS between July 2019 and Feb 2020. Vasava was also accused of siphoning Rs 33.65 lakh she collected from students as fees for 2018-19 and 2019-20. The other two accused helped transfer the amount to a company in the name of Vasvani.After additional chief judicial magistrate D H Khambhati found the three guilty, they urged leniency. The prosecution sought harsh punishment for Vasava by submitting that she was convicted in a cheque return case as well. "The incidents of siphoning off money and criminal breach of trust are on the surge in society. When a clerk commits breach of trust, it is considered very damaging for society because common people generally trust them with office transactions. It is also necessary to ensure that people do not get encouragement to commit such offences."