Mumbai: 32-Year-Old Operations Manager At Banana Leaf Restaurant Booked For Embezzling ₹1.23 Crore, FIR Registered

Mumbai: The Santacruz police have registered an FIR against Dinath Shetty, 32, an operations manager at Banana Leaf Restaurant, for allegedly embezzling Rs.1.23 crore. Shetty is accused of siphoning the money from the restaurant's bank account. The police lodged the case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code on September 9. Banana Leaf is a popular South Indian cuisine restaurant chain in Mumbai.

According to the FIR, the complainant, Suraj Shetty, 53, a Juhu resident, operates the restaurant business. In 2005, he established Malgudi Fruits Private Limited. Through this company, Shetty runs the Banana Leaf restaurant chain along with two other partners. The company operates a total of 13 restaurants, including 10 in Mumbai, one in Pune, and two in Jaipur.

In 2017, the accused Dinath Shetty joined as a cashier at a restaurant in Borivali West. In 2019, he was transferred to the company's Goregaon East office as an operations manager. Shortly after, he began overseeing the sales and financial transactions of five restaurants. His primary role was to enhance sales. He performed his duties diligently, submitted receipts on time, and earned the management's trust.

As a result, the management decided to entrust him with the responsibility of handling the financial transactions of five restaurants. He collected money from the cashiers of these five outlets and credited the funds to the restaurant's bank accounts, overseeing all financial transactions for the five restaurants.

In February 2024, during a meeting, Dinanath Shetty provided information on the transactions of the five restaurants. He mentioned that a restaurant's rent, vendor payments, and taxes needed to be paid. The management trusted him and deducted these amounts from the total received money.

However, in March 2024, financial officer Santosh Shetty grew suspicious of Dinath Shetty and alerted the company's management. When a team from the company asked Dinath for detailed information about the transactions, he could not provide satisfactory answers. Further investigation by the company revealed that Dinanath Shetty had embezzled Rs.1.23 crore.

After discovering the financial misconduct by Dinath, Suraj Shetty filed a complaint with the Santacruz police station. The police have lodged the case under sections 420 (cheating), 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee), 467 (forgery of valuable documents), 477A (falsification of accounts), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.