Navi Mumbai: APMC police has booked a worker employed with a cold storage in Mafco market for embezzlement of goods worth Rs 5.6 lakh. The accused identified as Abdul Rehman Sheikh, was working with Prabhu Hira cold storage in the Mafco Market.
According to police, he is found to have altered the inventory records of apples and pulses stored in the cold storage and sold them further without authorization.
Sheikh, was working as an inventory operator at the Prabhu Hira Cold Chain LLP in the APMC Mafco Market, which stores fresh fruits and grains received from traders, farmers, and export businesses. Several traders had stored apples and pulses in the cold storage.
After retrieving their goods in May, the traders noticed that the quantity of apples and pulses were less than expected. They lodged a complaint with the cold storage managers, following which the manager, Shekhar Gupta, began investigating the missing goods.
Gupta asked Sheikh to verify the missing goods in the computer system, but Sheikh avoided the task by giving various excuses. Consequently, Gupta conducted the verification through a store operator in August, and it was found that 147 crates of apples, worth Rs 5 lakh, and five sacks of pulses, worth Rs 60,000 rupees, were missing—totaling a loss of Rs 5.6 lakh. It was also found by Gupta that Sheikh had altered the inventory records and sold the goods without authorization, embezzling the items.
After Sheikh realised that his employer had found about his fraud, he fled from the office in August and never returned. After waiting for a month, Gupta filed a missing person report with the APMC police. And now, Gupta lodged a formal complaint against Sheikh at the APMC police station for fraud and embezzlement of the goods. "We are looking out for the accused and are yet to trace him," said a police officer from APMC police station said.
