Mumbai: Businessman's guard steals Rs 10 lakh cash, held

MUMBAI: Sahar police arrested a 24-year-old man who fled away after stealing an Rs 10 lakh cash bag that was kept in a locker in a five-star hotel room where his employer has stayed between May 23 and 27 before a case of theft was registered.
Accused Indrajit Singh, employed as a bodyguard for the Kolhapur-based businessman Pranil Bhoite (32), splurged Rs 5.85 lakhs of the total stolen sum partying (alcohol and food) and lending money with villagers of Gavraipada in Nallasopara for two days and three nights before he was nabbed from Kurla Terminus while trying to board a long-distance train to Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, Bhoite, who is into the business of infrastructure, hired Singh along with few other bouncers six months ago so that whenever he travels to Mumbai they will guard him.
Bhoite had been paying each of them Rs 25,000 every month. He came to Mumbai on May 22 to meet clients related to his infrastructure business. “Singh committed the offence after Bhoite gave him the hotel room access card. He knew the four-digit locker code which the complainant seemed to have revealed while instructing him to do his work. He had splurged money carelessly and would have finished everything if he had not been nabbed at Kurla railway terminus,” said a police officer.
The police team used manual intelligence and paid money to informers to get information about Singh. They that Singh can be identified with the help of four fingers on his right palm while the thumb is missing. DCP (Zone VIII) Manjunath Singe supervised the team—ACP Kalpana Gadekar, Sahar police senior inspector Dinkar Shilvate, inspector Vishal Padir, sub-inspector Nagral, constables Chandrakant Kubal, Praveen Jadhav and Nikhilesh Sable.
The nabbed him after identifying his missing finger. He was found in an inebriated condition at Kurla Terminus late on Friday. “Singh who was heavily drunk replied in English when we asked his name,” said the police.
Singh joined Bhoite when he arrived in Mumbai for a meeting. On May 22, Bhoite checked into a five-star close to the International Airport. In the complaint, Bhoite said, “I checked out from the hotel the next day after the management told me that I cannot hold a meeting in the hotel due to Covid-19 restrictions. I booked another five-star hotel in the vicinity and moved there along with Singh. On May 25, I had a rift with one of the client and informed Singh to go to the hotel room and gave one of the access cards or he can go home and resume work the next day. I returned to the hotel room at around 11 pm and found Singh was not present. I thought he has gone home. I learnt about the theft only the next afternoon when I checked the locker and found the cash bag missing.”
A police officer said Bhoite even tried through his other guards to locate Singh and even called his wife to tell him to return with the money. “The case was registered only on May 27 which gave Singh the time to splurge Rs5.85 lakhs. As he does not have a mobile, it would have been difficult to nab him if we had not come across the informers,” said the officer.