Two Transafe ex-honchos arrested over multi-crore fraud

Two top former executives of logistics firm Transafe Services Ltd, a largely government-owned enterprise, were arrested on Friday on charges of cheating, forgery and doctoring accounts that had resulted in the company losing crores of rupees.

Gopal Krishna Mukerjea, the former managing director of Transafe, a subsidiary of Balmer Lawrie, was picked up from his Golf Green house in Kolkata, and PM Mitra, the former vice-president of the company, was arrested at his Kasba residence. They have been remanded in police custody for a week.

Police said Mukerjea had gained Rs38 lakh from the forgery in three years since 2006, while Mitra had pocketed around Rs10 lakh.

Transafe, with its head office in the city, manufactures containers and is also hired to oversee transportation of goods in them. The company had started an independent probe in 2009 after receiving several complaints about financial misconduct and other irregularities by senior officials.

''Gopal Mukerjea was the managing director during the period mentioned in the complaints. We have also found that he used to submit forged bills to recover his personal expenses,'' said Viren Sinha, a member of the Transafe board of directors. The company had in June lodged a complaint with Hare Street police station.

According to officers probing the case, it takes around two years to make a container, and the process starts only after a purchase order has been placed. ''But within months of an order being placed, the duo would falsely show on paper that a container had been delivered. This was done on a regular basis since 2006-2007. The fudged figures inflated the firm's profits on paper and the duo got huge amounts as incentives,'' said an officer.

Mukerjea had worked with the company for over a decade and resigned in November 2009. Mitra was recently suspended.