The Marine Drive police have arrested Dhiraj Utekar, 32, a supervisor at a south Mumbai car dealership, for allegedly orchestrating a Rs 55.6 lakh fuel billing fraud during 2022-23.
The complaint, filed by Sanjeev Kumar Thakur, vice president of Fortpoint Automotive Cars Pvt Ltd, stated that the company had a contract with State Bank of India (SBI) Corporate Centre, Nariman Point, to provide 132 cars on a three-year rental basis for bank officials. The vehicles — 119 Maruti Ciaz and 11 Honda City cars — were refueled at Hodiwala Bathena Petrol Pump near Eros Cinema in Churchgate.
According to the FIR, between October 2022 and March 2023, Utekar and another employee, Sushant Phaske, responsible for refueling and maintaining petrol registers, conspired with the petrol pump cashier to generate fake fuel slips for cars that never visited the pump or were at the Andheri service center for repairs.
An internal audit and GPS tracking exposed the discrepancies. Utekar initially admitted to creating fake fuel bills worth Rs 12 lakh and named employees who accepted payments, but he later failed to repay the amount and allegedly threatened company officials when confronted.
Marine Drive police registered a case against Utekar, Phaske, and other unidentified associates for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. Utekar has been arrested, while Phaske remains at large.
