Uttar Pradesh: CA aspirant siphons off Rs 5.50 lakh from employer’s account to pay course fee

AGRA: A person aspiring to be a chartered accountant, who was working as a computer operator on low pay in a private school, siphoned off Rs 5.50 lakh from his employer’s account to pay the fee for his chartered accountancy course.
Ajay Sharma of Kamla Nagar made around 15-20 transactions via Paytm e-wallet after adding debit card details of his septuagenarian employer, Kartar Chandra Shashtri of Suhagnagar — owner of several educational institutions, including the school.
In the alleged crime, Ajay Sharma was helped by his friend Shivam Rathore, whose family runs a fast-food eatery in Balkeshwar, under New Agrapolice station.
Sub-inspector Amit Kumar of Agra police cyber cell said, “Ajay had gained the trust of his employer Kartar Chandra Shashtri while working as a computer operator. He often took Kartar’s phone on the pretext of calling his business associates, during which he used the phone to retrieve OTPs (one time password) forwarded from the latter’s bank, to carry out transactions.”
“Since the victim did not use net banking or e-wallets, he never came to know of the alleged siphoning of his savings. After the lockdown was revoked, the victim visited his bank to get his passbook updated, and found Rs 5.50 lakh missing from his bank account. He then lodged a complaint,” said Kumar, the officer in charge of the investigation.
“During the probe, we found the money had been wired into Shivam Rathore’s e-wallet (merchant account) by Ajay Sharma. Shivam used to charge a percentage to pay out the wired amount in cash. Ajay confessed to his crime, claiming he wanted to pay the fee for a CA course he was pursuing via distance learning from New Delhi. Since his salary as computer operator was low, he targeted his employer for the money,” added the officer.