MUMBAI: The Dahisar police on Thursday booked the principal of a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) school and three of her relatives for allegedly cheating a home guard of ₹2.5 lakh. The principal, Kamlabai Rathod, promised to get the homeguard, Vaibhav Goregaonkar, a government job, claiming she had contacts in the Mantralaya, and refused to return the money taken as bribe when the job did not work out, police officials familiar with the case told Hindustan Times.(Shutterstock)According to the police, the 39-year-old home guard, a resident of Dahisar East, met Rathod in 2019 when he was posted in the BMC school where she was the principal. Rathod told Goregaonkar that she could help him get a government job as she was close to the personal assistant of then chief minister Eknath Shinde and her husband Rameshchandra, son Dharmesh and nephew Vicky had contacts in the Mantralaya.“The principal and her relatives told him it would take ₹8 lakh to secure a job in the state public works department (PWD). The amount was later negotiated to ₹6 lakh, and Goregaonkar was asked to pay ₹3 lakh immediately and ₹3 lakh after the job was confirmed within 45 days,” said a police officer.In 2023, the home guard paid Rathod and the other accused ₹3.22 lakh but when the job did not materialise after 45 days, he asked for a refund.“They initially gave him a cheque and later returned only ₹70,000, prompting the home guard to file a complaint,” said the police officer quoted earlier.