Media house fraud: Main accused held by Mumbai Crime Branch

The Mumbai Crime Branch on Thursday arrested a main accused, Amit Mayekar, for allegedly duping a media house to the tune of Rs 15 core under the pretext of sanctioning remuneration to freelance writers and columnists.

Mayekar had been working with the media house for almost 10 years and had been siphoning money since 2014. The total number of persons arrested in the case have now risen to 28.

Along with Mayekar, the police have also arrested his wife Swapna, cousin Amey Sawant, cousin's wife Namrata, another relative Chandrakant Mayekar, and Pravin Shelar for allegedly being involved in the fraud.

According to the police, the media house paid its freelance writers and the remuneration was allegedly sanctioned by Mayekar. Mayekar was the secretary to a senior editor of the firm. It has been alleged that Mayekar had shown at least 78 persons, most of them non-existent, as freelance writers associated with the firm and transferred remunerations to their accounts.

The police said that money ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each were transferred as remunerations in the accounts of these 78 'freelancers'.

The media house, during a recent audit, learnt that the paid 'writers' never wrote for the firm, after which they lodged a police complaint on April 30.