A shocking case of large-scale financial fraud has come to light, wherein a former senior accounts officer, who had resigned from a private company three years ago, allegedly misused the company’s bank login credentials to siphon off ₹8.69 crore. The accused, who had been absconding for the past one-and-a-half months after an offence of criminal breach of trust and cheating was registered, has finally been arrested by Samtanagar police.
The accused has been identified as Jaiprakash Basantilal Sodani (37). He is currently in police custody and is being interrogated. In the same case, his wife Kavita Maheshwari and several other bank account holders have been named as co-accused. They have been declared wanted, and police teams are searching for them.
According to police, complainant Vipin Varkhawat, who lives with his wife and daughter in the Magathane area of Borivali, has been working as the accounts batch head in a private limited company for the past 13 years. The company, along with its associate firm, has its head office at Nariman Point, where Minal Pote is a director. Between September 21, 2019, and May 25, 2022, Jaiprakash Sodani was employed as a senior accounts officer in the company’s accounts department. Being a trusted employee, he was entrusted with complete responsibility of the accounts department and had access to the company’s bank login ID, user ID and password.
Sodani resigned from the company on May 25, 2022. In October, a common meeting of all related companies was held, during which concerns were raised about declining profits and heavy financial losses over the past few years. It was decided to conduct a complete audit of the company, and the responsibility was assigned to Vipin Varkhawat. During the audit, while scrutinising bills and bank records, Varkhawat noticed online transactions amounting to several crores of rupees from the company’s bank account.
Further examination of bank statements revealed that large sums had been transferred to a single account in the names of different firms. On obtaining details of these accounts, it emerged that some of them belonged to Jaiprakash Sodani. Investigations revealed that Sodani had transferred money to accounts held by himself, his wife Kavita Maheshwari, and other individuals. Between February 1, 2023, and September 30, 2025, he allegedly transferred a total of ₹8,69,93,046 to various bank accounts.
Police said that part of the misappropriated amount was used to purchase a property in Rajasthan, for which payments of ₹1.31 crore were made. The property was later transferred in the company’s name. Additionally, ₹17.90 lakh was deposited back into the company’s bank account.
Investigations revealed that even after resigning, Sodani continued to carry out online transactions from the company’s bank account by misusing the login ID and password. During questioning, he reportedly admitted to the misuse and disclosed that he had updated his personal mobile number with the bank, due to which transaction alerts were sent to his phone instead of the company’s registered number.
Following the revelation, the company, through Vipin Varkhawat, lodged a complaint at Samtanagar police station against Jaiprakash Sodani, his wife, and other bank account holders. After verification, police registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust involving misappropriation of ₹8.69 crore. Soon after the case was registered, Sodani went absconding. After a search operation lasting nearly six weeks, police finally arrested him.
He was produced before a Borivali local court, which remanded him to police custody. Police said further investigation is underway to trace how the defrauded money was utilised and to identify the involvement of other accused. More shocking revelations are expected during the ongoing probe.