Chandrapur (Maharashtra), August 19: A case has been registered by Chandrapur police against two brothers, Abhishek Vinodkumar Thakur and Rohit Vinodkumar Thakur, residing on Gurdwara Road in Chandrapur, for their alleged involvement in a fraud scheme amounting to over Rs 12 crore. The brothers are accused of embezzling government funds through an online booking scam related to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district.
According to authorities, the accused brothers were operating a company called Chandrapur Wild Connectivity Solution, which had secured a contract for managing online bookings for Tadoba ‘Jungle Safari’ in collaboration with the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve Project Promotion Foundation. Under this contract, the company was authorized to handle online safari bookings on a commission basis.
Between 2020 and 2023, as per the contract terms, the company was supposed to deposit an amount of Rs 22 crore 80 lakh with the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Project Promotion Foundation. However, the complainant alleges that the company only deposited Rs 10 crore 65 lakh, thereby embezzling the remaining Rs 12 crore 15 lakh.
The discrepancies came to light during an audit covering the four-year period. Once it was evident that government funds had been misappropriated, Sachin Uttam Shinde, Divisional Forest Officer of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Project, filed a complaint against the Thakur brothers with the Ramnagar Police Station in Chandrapur.
