A major rent collection scam worth over ₹5.70 crore has surfaced in the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). A senior clerk allegedly manipulated rent receipts and misappropriated funds collected from tenants instead of depositing the money into the government account.
Following the revelations, MHADA has registered a case of fraud and criminal breach of trust against the accused clerk at Dadar Police Station. The accused, identified as Jagdish Parshuram Dharmik (57), has already been suspended from service.
According to police, the complaint was lodged by Pramod Kamble (50), who works as a Property Manager in Circle-4 of the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board. Kamble, a resident of Chembur, has been serving in the department since 2023. His responsibilities include supervising the collection of rent and service charges from tenants living in reconstructed buildings, as well as overseeing the transfer and regularisation of residential and commercial units.
Kamble stated that during 2023, several tenants residing in MHADA’s reconstructed buildings submitted written complaints alleging discrepancies between the rent they had paid and the amounts recorded in official department records. The complainants also submitted photocopies of rent receipts as evidence.
Taking the complaints seriously, the department initiated a preliminary inquiry. During the investigation, suspicion fell on senior clerk Jagdish Dharmik, who was responsible for rent collection in the ‘F’ South Division between 2015 and 2023. His duties included collecting rent and service charges from tenants living in reconstructed buildings and transit camps.
Considering the seriousness of the allegations, the department formed a four-member inquiry committee. The committee included Accounts Officer N.R. Rangali, Departmental Accountant Seema Mayekar, Property Manager Pravin Bagul and Assistant C.D. Ghadle. The committee examined departmental records, bank deposits and rent receipts held by tenants. The probe revealed large-scale financial irregularities.
The investigation revealed that the accused issued a total of 22,209 rent receipts to tenants during his tenure. However, only 13,551 receipts were found to have corresponding deposits in the department’s bank account. This means there was no remittance record for 8,658 receipts.
The committee also visited several buildings and collected copies of rent receipts from tenants. During verification of 6,591 receipts, it was found that 3,368 receipts had major discrepancies between the collected amounts and the amounts deposited in the department’s accounts. This alone indicated a direct financial irregularity of ₹53,26,640.
Further analysis revealed that even among the 13,551 receipts shown as deposited, manipulation of figures had resulted in the misappropriation of around ₹2,14,31,502.
In addition, based on the estimated average amount of the 8,658 receipts for which no remittance record was available, the committee estimated a misappropriation of about ₹3,56,36,426.
According to the inquiry committee’s report, the total amount allegedly embezzled by the accused comes to ₹5,70,67,928. The funds were collected as rent and service charges from tenants residing in reconstructed buildings and transit camps.
Following the findings of the inquiry, MHADA suspended Jagdish Dharmik from service on July 10, 2023. Subsequently, the department lodged a police complaint against him.
Based on the complaint, Dadar Police have registered a case against the clerk under charges of fraud, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of government funds.
Police officials said further investigation is underway to determine whether any other employees or officials were involved in the scam and how the misappropriated money was used.