School student detained for stealing bag containing 70,000

PUNE: On Tuesday afternoon, a 11-year-old school student was passing by Shivnerinagar in Kondhwa when he noticed a bag hanging from a motorcycle parked nearby. The boy's curiosity got the better of him and upon inspecting he discovered a lot of money in it. His dream of going from rags to riches, however, lasted just a day.
The bag, belonging to electrician Freky Nicolas Mendosa (39), contained Rs70,000. Mendosa was to use the money to pay the bills accruing from his mother's medical treatment but he forgot the bag on his bike after reaching home.

The Kondhwa police detained the young boy and recovered the cash from his residence after his images were captured on a CCTV camera. The boy is a student of a Marathi-medium school in the vicinity.

Sub-inspector Vishnu Wadkar said, "The boy stole the bag and rushed to his residence nearby. He found cash and documents upon opening the bag. He concealed the cash and dumped the documents close to his home. The incident came to light after someone called Mendosa telling him that the documents had been found."

Mendosa and his friends conducted a thorough search for the bagbut in vain. "We registered an FIR against an unidentified person on October 10 at 1am. We then visited the spot and checked the footage from a CCTV camera that revealed a minor boy stealing the bag," Wadkar added.

"Local residents helped establish the boy's identity. When we visited his residence, he confessed to stealing the bag. He handed over the entire amount to the police. We have served a notice to his parents asking him to be present before the Juvenile Court for further procedure," he said.

The boy hails from a family belonging to the lower economic strata. His parents claimed the boy did not intend to commit a crime but was attracted to the unattended bag. The boy's father works as a labourer with a contractor while his mother works as a domestic help.