Mumbai: Senior Manager Accused of Rs 8–10 Crore Fraud at Powai IT Firm, Booked

A serious case of large-scale fraud and criminal breach of trust has come to light at a private IT company based in Mumbai’s Powai area, where a senior manager is accused of misusing confidential company data and resources to set up a rival firm in his son’s name and divert clients.

According to the complaint, the accused senior manager allegedly exploited the company’s confidential data, official email system and technical infrastructure to float another company of a similar nature and sent business proposals to the original company’s clients through the new entity. The company has claimed a financial loss of ₹8 to ₹10 crore due to the alleged fraud.

The complaint has been filed by the company’s director, Malyakal (49), at the Park Site Police Station. Police have initiated an investigation into the matter.

As per police officials, the complainant resides in the Hiranandani area of Powai and has been running a company providing software and hardware system integration services since 2011. The complaint states that in March 2025, the company was looking to hire an experienced professional for the post of Senior Manager (Accounts). Amit Arvind Shah applied online and was selected after an interview. He was offered an annual package of ₹32.37 lakh and was assigned a target of bringing in ₹40 crore worth of business annually.

After joining in April 2025, Shah was given two to three months of technical and sales training. He was later provided with a company laptop, official email ID, mobile SIM card and authorised to directly communicate with clients. However, the company alleged that in six months, Shah managed to generate business worth only ₹5 lakh. Due to his poor performance, he was placed under a 90-day Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), and his salary was reduced to ₹1.45 lakh per month.

During this period, the management began suspecting that Shah was concealing information in his daily and weekly reports and holding external meetings with clients without authorisation. Based on these suspicions, the company retrieved his laptop and conducted a forensic audit. The audit of email accounts, Google Workspace logs and browser access reportedly revealed incriminating evidence.

Police said the investigation revealed that Shah, in collusion with his son Neel Shah, had set up a new firm named Tech 91 Solutions. The company was allegedly being operated using the complainant firm’s laptop, email system and data from the office. Proposals sent in the name of Tech 91 Solutions were found to be identical in format, language and technical specifications to those of the original company.

It is further alleged that clients who were already in talks with the complainant company were deliberately not sent official proposals, while attempts were made to finalise the same deals through the newly formed firm. The complainant has claimed that this well-planned conspiracy resulted in a financial loss of ₹8 to ₹10 crore.

Police have registered a case and have launched a detailed probe based on digital evidence.