The total number of persons arrested so far in the case has gone up to 35, with the fresh arrests.
Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested seven more persons allegedly involved in the case wherein a media house was duped to the tune of Rs 15 crore, under the pretext of sanctioning remuneration to freelance writers and columnists. The total number of persons arrested so far in the case has gone up to 35, with the fresh arrests.
Those arrested were Vignesh Raul, 33, Ajay Jhorig, 30, Abhijit Patil, 35, Jayesh Mahadik, 32, Yogesh Ahire, 32, Uttam Gawli, 43, and Vilas Khorgadhar, 44.
According to the police, the remuneration for the freelance writers was allegedly sanctioned by the mastermind and already arrested accused Amit Mayekar, who earlier worked with the media-house as secretary to the senior editor of the firm.
It has been alleged that Mayekar had shown at least 78 persons as 'freelance writers', writing for the media house, and transferred 'remunerations' in to their accounts.
The police also alleged that around Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each were transferred as remunerations in to the accounts of 78 persons, who were shown as freelance writers. Interestingly, many of the 78 persons shown as 'writers' do not even exist, police said.
The media house, during a recent audit, learnt that the money was being paid to 'writers' who did not even write for them, post which they lodged a police complaint on April 30.
The police said the other arrested accused are beneficiaries in the alleged crime. "Mayekar is the main accused in the case, who got the money sanctioned fraudulently and transferred it in his relatives' accounts via the other accused in the case. The now arrested accused are the beneficiaries of the fraud and we will be grilling them to ascertain where have they routed/ spent any of the money," said a police officer.
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