Store manager booked for siphoning off ₹17 lakh
Manager of a shoe store at Mumbai airport embezzled ₹17 lakh by pocketing cash payments from customers, leading to a police case for breach of trust and cheating.
MUMBAI: The Sahar police have booked the manager of a shoe store located inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj international airport (CSMIA) who allegedly embezzled over ₹17 lakh from the company by pocketing cash payments.
According to the complaint by a company executive, based on which the first information report was registered, Zakir Zuber Sheikh, 24, the store manager began working with the company in 2021, when it started the store inside the airport. Once he realised that the stock assessment team did not access to the airport and thus, could not undertake regular stock checks at the store, he started selling products to customers and pocketing the sale proceeds with leaving any records.
“Many times, our customers are in a hurry to catch their flight, so they don’t demand a receipt for purchases – more so when they pay in cash. For the first few months after the store became operational, our stock assessment team could not do their job for lack of proper passes. Once that issue was resolved, they found out a difference of ₹17 lakh between the stock sold and the accounts,” the executive stated in the complaint.
Since Zakir Sheikh could not provide any satisfactory explanation about the difference, the company conducted an internal enquiry on the matter. It revealed that the accused had appointed a person named Mohammed Waris Sheikh as a ‘sales executive’, who the other employees said had never worked in the store.
“Upon further enquiry, we found out that this mysterious sales executive was related to the store manager. We delved into the sales made by him and found that between May 2022 and April 2023, he made several sales without receipts or bills. The accused pocketed all the cash payments made in the period,” the company executive told the police.
When the company confronted Zakir Sheikh, he said he would return the entire amount. He also gave company executives four cheques. But the cheques bounced, after which the company decided to approach the police.
“We have booked the accused under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code,” said an official from Sahar police. Further investigation in the matter is underway, he said.
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