Accountant siphons off Rs9.5 lakhs from doctor

In a complaint registered with Naranpura police, Dr Dinesh Patel has accused one Manoj Patel of cheating him of Rs9,51,000. Dr Patel owns the Devasya kidney and multi-specialty hospital in Nava Vadaj, where the accused, Manoj worked as an accountant.

Manoj, who lives in Ratnam Bungalows, Science City, was handling finances of the hospital since 1994. The irregularities were detected by the doctor himself after he went through account books of his hospital. Dinesh said that the amount was siphoned off between Jan and Sep 2011.

According to the complaint, Manoj managed to deposit cheques meant for the hospital in his own account. He and the hospital have their accounts in Union Bank of India. Using this modus operandi, Manoj robbed the hospital of Rs1,45,000 which it had received as donation. He also whisked away Rs1.11 lakh which was collected by way of outdoor patient fee, besides Rs1.19 lakh given by the doctor and meant for one Hina Panchal, owner of a city pharmacy, co-owned by the doctor.

Manoj inflated expenses and underreported income to hide his manipulation with the accounts, police claim.

"A continuous drop in income made Dinesh suspicious. It was then that he looked into the account books and hence discovered the cheating," said a police official.