Mumbai crime: Bank clerk flees with cheques worth Rs 45,000, arrested

A 29-year-old clerk working with a private bank in Lower Parel has been arrested for fleeing with two cheques, worth Rs 45,000, from the bank.

The accused, Sanjay Yellappa Patil, who is a Bawla Masjid resident, had been working with the bank since two months. He admitted to being in debt, and wanted to pay off his loans with the robbed money.

An officer from NM Joshi Marg police station, on condition of anonymity, said, "The bank gave two cheques to Patil, worth R20,000 and R25,000, and asked him to hand them over to someone. Patil, however, did not return and encashed the stolen cheques to repay his loans."

After the bank registered an FIR with the police station, the cops began hunting Patil down. "We put his mobile number on Call Detail Record (CDR) and gathered that he was at Bhandup West. We dispatched a team there, but were successful. Later, Patil contacted his friend who lives in Bawla Compound at Byculla, who then informed us about his whereabouts. We asked the friend to call him to his Byculla residence, and later arrested him."

Patil has been booked under section 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant) of the Indian Penal Code and has been remanded to police custody.