Tadoba Jungle Safari Bookings Scam : Police registers case against two brothers over Rs 12 crore fraud in online booking

Chandrapur (Maharashtra), August 19 : The Chandrapur police have registered a case against two brothers who defrauded the Forest Department allegedly indulging in embezzlement of government funds worth more than Rs 12 crore, a senior police official said on Saturday.

According to the official, Abhishek Vinodkumar Thakur and Rohit Vinodkumar Thakur, both residents of Gurdwara Road, Chandrapur, were operating a firm that was given a contract for online booking of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district.

A contract was signed between the Executive Director of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve Project Promotion Foundation for Tadoba ‘Jungle Safari’ and a company named Chandrapur Wild Connectivity Solution. This company belongs to Thakur brothers, said the official. Under the said contract, this company could take online safari booking in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve Project on commission basis.

During the period from 2020 to 2023, under the booking made to this company, an amount of 22 crore 80 lakh was to be deposited with the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Project Promotion Foundation, but the complainant alleges that this company has deposited only 10 crore 65 lakh. They embezzled the remaining amount of 12 crore 15 lakh.

The defraud came to the fore after the audit of all the four years was done. When it became clear that the government funds were embezzled, Sachin Uttam Shinde, Divisional Forest Officer of Tadoba Andhari tiger project filed complaints against the two brothers with Ramnagar Police Station in Chandrapur. Police have registered a case against the accused, the official said, adding that further probe was on.