2 arrested for Rs 19 lakh fraud against firm

The Manikpur police in Vasai (west) on Tuesday arrested two men who had been stealing money repeatedly from cash vans that deposit money into ATMs, said the police. Both the accused used to work with a company which delivers cash to the various ATM machines and in a span of two years, the accused had managed to steal more than Rs 19 lakh from the ATMs.

Ranjit Pawar, police inspector from Manikpur, said, “We arrested them Tuesday evening and on Wednesday they will be produced in court.”

Earlier, a 42-year-old Dahisar-based manager who works with Securevalue Indian Ltd. in Goregaon filed a complaint with the Manikpur police station stating that the two had been stealing from the company’s cash van for the last years.

Both the accused were working in the company as executives. The company delivers money for various bank ATMs in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar.

According to police sources, the accused were entrusted to deposit money in a ICICI bank ATM in Vasai and between March 28 and April 12, while depositing the money in ATMs, the duo had kept almost Rs 22,000 with them on various occasions.

Later, when the company checked the accounts, it realised that this had been happening for the last two years and since the day they had joined the company, the two had been stealing money from the cash van instead of depositing it in the ATMs.

On perusing the accounts in detail, the company found that total of '19,21,600 was stolen by the accused, after which they moved the police station and lodged a case against the duo.

The accused has been identified as Abhijeet Bane and Shrikant Gavas, who stays in Vasai area and were arrested from their houses on Tuesday evening.

The police arrested the duo under various sections of IPC for criminal breach of trust, cheating, theft and common intention.