Spa manager at airport booked for swapping QR code, siphons ₹48 lakh

MUMBAI: The manager of a spa in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) was booked on Monday for allegedly swapping the QR code on the billing desk for online payments, with a QR code linked to his account, and embezzled a total of ₹48 lakh, the police said.

The complaint was made by Indore-based Nirmal Chaudhari, the operations head of Zivaya Wellness, which runs a centre located in the lounge of terminal 2 of the CSMIA.

Chaudhari alleged that the manager of the Mumbai centre, Gurdeep Singh Mathru, was found to have swapped the QR code sometime in May 2022. The company was told by the police they received a call from an unknown caller tipping them off about this in July.

“We also spoke to the other employees, and some of them confirmed that they knew Mathru was doing this embezzlement. However, they said that they chose to keep quiet about it, fearing that they would be fired from their jobs if they objected to it,” Chaudhari said to the police. They also conducted an audit of the accounts before firing Mathru and taking away his access card to the airport.

It was through the said audit that the company realised that they had lost around ₹48 lakh. The accused has been booked under sections 408 (criminal breach of trust by an employee entrusted with property) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code.

“We are looking into the audit details provided by the company. We have also asked for the bank statements of the accused. We will also be looking into the lifestyle changes he and his family went through in the past year during our investigation,” said an official from Sahar police.