Pune: Harshal Thakre, chief executive officer of Noida-registered ThynkTech India OPC Ltd, set up a branch in Hinjewadi and hired a large number of freshers last year, possibly to secure govt IT projects, preliminary investigations by the Hinjewadi police showed on Wednesday, after his arrest in an alleged cheating and criminal breach of trust case registered on Monday night.The case stems from the firm’s sudden shutdown on April 22, rendering at least 500 IT engineers, employees and interns jobless. An intern filed the complaint on Monday night, alleging the firm cheated employees, withheld salaries and misappropriated security deposits.Senior inspector Balaji Pandhare of the Hinjewadi police told TOI, “Investigations so far have revealed that Thakre did not have any projects in hand that required such a large workforce. He was probably aiming to secure govt IT projects.”According to the police, after the company shutdown, Thakre moved to Nashik and remained uncooperative despite repeated attempts to contact him. “A police team was dispatched to his residence at Adgaon in Nashik on Tuesday to prevent him from fleeing. His wife initially claimed he was not at home. But we had credible information and waited for over two hours. He eventually came out from the bedroom, and we immediately detained him,” assistant police inspector Somnath Panchal said.The police suspected that Thakre was preparing to leave Nashik when he was apprehended. He was brought to Hinjewadi on Tuesday night and formally arrested on Wednesday. Thakre was then produced before a court, which remanded him to police custody till June 9.According to the complaint, the firm had collected a deposit of Rs 15,000 from each employee for issuing laptops but neither returned the deposits nor paid their salaries. “Thakre holds an MTech degree and also claimed to have previously worked with a prominent IT firm. We are verifying his claims,” Pandhare said.Besides Thakre, the police have also registered a case under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust) and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the firm’s training and development head, and HR head, whose whereabouts are currently not known. “We are searching for them,” Pandhare said.
