Kolkata: Hare Street PS, which is investigating the alleged embezzlement of funds at South Point school, has claimed that Global Staffing Services, a division of Pastille Mercantile Pvt Ltd that is owned by the kin of secretary-cum-treasurer of the school governing council, Krishna Damani, received around Rs 8.4 crore from South Point Educational Society (SPES) between April 2020 and June 2023.
“A sum of Rs 2.6 crore has further been distributed to different family members in the form of directors’ commission and salary. Both these entities are controlled and managed by Damani and/or his family members which are being used to siphon out funds from SPES,” the cops said in a document forwarded to court.
The police have also claimed that the profit percentage of the Global Staffing Services where Damani’s wife and mother are directors has increased from 50.6% in 2020-21 to 59.8% in 2021-22 and finally 66.5% in 2022-23. “…such has happened due to the infusion of the siphoned money that was made by cheating public money and school,” claimed the police.
The cops have also claimed that to justify the expenditure of the school, “the accused laid a plethora of forged documents comprising of vouchers and payment receipts with regard to staff recruited and ghost staff provided by his allied company.”. They added that custodial interrogation is being done to recover these vouchers and ascertain if every employee mentioned in the vouchers exists physically.
The counsel representing Damani has already countered the police claims. “South Point is a school of international repute. South Point Education Society had engaged a commercial entity, Global Staffing Services, a division of Pastille Mercantile Pvt Ltd, to provide manpower to the school. This manpower had been provided by the same company since 2003, when Priyamvada Birla was at the helm. Since then the administration changed five times. All through these years, both the school and the company were audited. Why is it then that auditors found nothing amiss? The school itself is calling the charges fabricated. There seems little basis to these allegations,” said advocate Sabyasachi Banerjee.
Cops have hinted that they will now get more statements recorded before the magistrate even as they get all documents available on record checked by chartered accountants.