A 29-year-old executive of a gold loan company was arrested after he reported a false robbery case and allegedly stole ₹4 lakh, which he had to deliver to one of the firm’s branches. The police arrested the employee, Arun Kumar, on Wednesday within an hour after he reported that he had been attacked.
Sanjeev Patil DCP (West) said Kumar had joined the gold loan firm last month as a sales executive. His job was to collect cash from the main office in Shivajinagar and distribute it to other branches across the city.
“On Wednesday morning, he collected ₹8 lakh from the main branch and left the premises on his scooter at around 10 a.m.,” said police. But instead of heading to the branches, he went to his house, and stashed ₹4 lakh cash, after which he headed to a branch located in Bapujinagar. While depositing the cash, he told staff members that he had to deposit ₹4 lakh at another branch and left.
“He revealed this information on purpose,” said a police officer. They learnt that while on the flyover in front of Nayandahalli metro station, he waited for traffic to ease, and pretended to throw chilli powder on his face.
He then stopped a goods vehicle for help and cooked up a story that two men on a bike threw chilli powder on him and assaulted him. He claimed that before he could react they took the cash in his backpack, along with his vehicle key. “He asked the driver of the good vehicle to record his statement on his mobile phone, and sent the clip to his manager,” the police said.
Based on the complaint, the Byatarayanapura police swung into action and reached the spot when Kumar was ‘attacked’. While talking to Kumar, Inspector Shankar Naik G.K. found that the facts in Kumar’s statement kept changing. “People who are attacked with chilli powder are in agony. On a hunch, we subjected him to an eye test and found there was no trace of any chilli powder,” said the police officer.He was taken into custody where he allegedly confessed. Based on his confession, a police team recovered the cash at his apartment. Kumar claimed that his sister was having financial problems. “He had asked his manager for a loan, but was refused as he had joined just a month ago,” Mr. Naik, said.
