Goa Cricket Association president, secretary and treasurer arrested for fraud

Panaji: Goa Cricket Association president Chetan Dessai, secretary Vinod Phadke and treasurer Akbar Mulla were arrested by police on Wednesday for alleged misappropriation of over three crore rupees belonging to the organisation. Inspector Shivram Vaingankar of the Economic Offences Wing of Goa Police told PTI that all three were called for questioning this evening and were subsequently arrested. The EOW filed an FIR against the trio in connection with the alleged fraud of Rs 3.13 crore on 3 June. GCA’s life member Vilas Desai had filed a complaint accusing Dessai and the other two of forging signatures and opening bank accounts to siphon off the association’s money. They opened accounts between 23 October, 2006, and 23 May, 2008, when GCA was headed by Dayanand Narvekar while Dessai was its secretary and Phadke its treasurer. [caption id=“attachment_2837662” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] “They prepared forged documents as well as a resolution of GCA and submitted it to the Development Credit Bank to open an account. They then encashed a cheque of Rs 2.87 crore given by BCCI to the GCA,” the complaint says. The accused also forged signatures and withdrew Rs 26 lakh from the Federal Bank on the pretext of making payment to a sports goods company called ‘Hako Enterprise’, it says. Following the complaint, police registered a case under sections 408, 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 463, 464, 468 (forgery), 471 (fraud), 420 (cheating) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Meanwhile, Dessai and Phadke were admitted to the Goa Medical College Hospital after the arrest because of the high blood pressure, police said. All the three accused were taken for a medical check-up after the arrest by the police. Dessai and Phadke were admitted as their blood pressure was found to be high.