Small change and coins in stolen safe meant to contain lakhs of rupees stuns burglars and lands bank employee in a soup
The accused found more money in a drawer than in the heavy safe they had dragged home
While Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya managed to steal thousands of crores from banks without even breaking a sweat, three small-time thieves got shortchanged when they burgled a bank in Mulund. After dragging a 100-kg safe for nearly a kilometre, the crooks found barely R50 in coins inside. The only winner in this story is the bank, which later realised that one of its own employees had quietly stolen the Rs 14.38 lakh that was supposed to be in the locker.
According to the police, the thieves were addicts in search of money to buy mephedrone or MD. They were high even when they broke into the bank on August 5, but this was one trip that would take them straight to jail.
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They forced their way into Sarvoday Sahkari Patpedhi, a small bank in Mulund, around 10.30 pm. There, they found a 100-kg iron locker but were unable to crack it. Desperate for drugs, the thieves heaved the 2x1-foot safe out of the bank and dragged it for about 1 km to their house. But an even heavier shock was waiting for them inside the safe.
Shortchanged
It took them an hour to shave off the door with a sharp cutter, but there was nothing inside save for a couple of blank chequebooks and Rs 50 in coins. In fact, the crooks had found more money lying in a drawer at the bank (around Rs 400). In total, their loot came up to a grand sum of Rs 480 — barely enough to buy movie tickets for all of them. Confused, the thieves hid the locker in the house, burnt the chequebooks and fled the scene.
The police arrested Mubarak Shaikh (Left) and Sufiyan Ansari and are looking for the third accused. Pics/Rajesh Gupta
On Monday, all hell broke loose when the bank staffers came to work and found the place vandalised. The bank manager, Girish Savji, 40, lodged an FIR at the Mulund police station and told the cops that the locker had contained Rs 14.38 lakh.
Soon enough, the crime branch (Unit 7) arrested two of the accused — Sufiyan Ansari, 20, and Mubarak Shaikh, 19. During interrogation, they confessed that they had looted the bank, but said they had found only small change in the locker.
Inside job
Yesterday, the police finally joined the dots and figured out that the real thief was none other than the branch manager Murli Kadam. Kadam had allegedly taken the cash out of the locker on Friday as some customers had requested to withdraw money. But when they did not come to the bank, he kept the money with him. On Monday, when he heard about the burglary, he decided to take advantage of the situation and pocket the Rs 14 lakh.
Shripad Pale, senior inspector of Mulund police station, said, "We will book Kadam as we discovered that he hid the facts and evidence to profit from the crime."
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