A case has been registered against two brothers who run a company that contracts online booking of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. The police said that he allegedly cheated more than Rs 12 crore.
The accused Abhishek Vinodkumar Thakur and Rohit Vinodkumar Thakur are residents of Chandrapur town and a case of cheating was registered against them at Ramnagar police station on Friday. A statement issued by the District Superintendent of Police (SP) office said that Divisional Forest Officer Sachin Shinde has registered a complaint against the two.
Their partnership firm Chandrapur Wild Connectivity Solution was given the job of online booking. The accused brothers have been operating online booking in TATR for the last few years. However, it was recently revealed that the accused allegedly did not pay Rs 12,15,50,831 to the management of the tiger reserve.
A senior forest department official said, “It was found that they did not pay the required amount to TATR. His fraud came to the fore during regular audit. When the authorities sought an explanation from him, he failed to provide details of the payment and did not cooperate with the authorities. Following this, the TATR management terminated the services of his firm last week and appointed a new agency for online bookings.
According to the police, a detailed audit was conducted for the years 2020-21 to 2023-24, in which it was found that the firm had to pay Rs 22,80,67,749 to the Tiger Reserve Management. However, it paid only Rs 10,65,16,918 but not Rs 12,15,50,831. He said that the accused violated the terms and conditions of the agreement and embezzled the amount.
An offense has been registered against the accused under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and investigation into the matter is underway, police said. TATR is said to be the largest tiger reserve in Maharashtra. Chandrapur district is situated in the eastern part of the state.
