CA signs Andheri couple out of their garments biz

An Andheri couple, who owned a ready-made garments business, have been allegedly duped by their chartered accountant (CA), who tried to take over their firm. The Meghwadi police have arrested one person in the case and they are looking out for the CA and three others who were involved. Rakesh and Namrita Kabra hired the CA, Pramod Surolia, while he was employed at the local bank where they had an account. They told the police that when the CA left his bank job about eight years ago, they engaged him as a financial advisor. The Kabras, who operate NRK Overseas (India) Pvt Ltd from an office in Andheri (East), have a garments manufacturing unit at Rabale MIDC in Navi Mumbai. “As he was a friend, Kabra had no reason to distrust him and also gave him access to his digital signature for official purposes,” said a police officer. According to the complaint by the Kabras, Surolia hired Dnyeshwar Phalke and Ravindra Reddy Perati as directors of NRK Overseas, using the digital signature and without their knowledge. When Kabra came to know about it in 2010, he told Surolia to terminate the services of these persons, but Surolia ignored his order. In November 2012, he was shocked “to learn that mine and my wife’s directorship had ceased, after they uploaded our false resignation letters by forging our signatures on the company website,” Kabra said. In January 2013, the Kabras filed a complaint of forgery and cheating with the Saki Naka police. However, nothing happened about the complaint for nearly a year till the matter was handed over to the Meghwadi police last month. Santosh Bhandare, senior police inspector, said they had arrested Dnyeshwar Phalke, who is an information technology professional. The others named in the case are Pramod Surolia, Amit Surolia, Ravindra Reddy Perati and Raveesh Singh, who is also a CA. Surolia had applied for anticipatory bail at the sessions court but his plea was rejected.