Man arrested for robbing friend of Rs 23 lakh

The accused had already spent most of the money on travelling and buying gold at the time of his arrest

The Upparpeth police have arrested a 33-year-old man for robbing his friend of Rs 23 lakh. The accused, who had been absconding for the last two months has already spent lakhs on travelling and gold at the time of his arrest.


Breach of trust: Santosh with the money that was recovered from
his possession. Police say he had also invested some money at a
Mangalore bank

The accused, Santosh hails from Udupi, and has a B.Com degree, couldn't keep a job because of his cheating ways. For the same reason, Santosh was always between jobs. Seeing this, one of his friends introduced him to Rajesh, who owns a mining business.

A few meetings later, the two of them became thick friends, and Rajesh offered him a job as his assistant. Santosh's life changed after that. He would accompanying Rajesh on various business trips, and was getting a good salary. But that couldn't keep him, and Santosh started to get bored.

Opportunity strikes
On December 20 last year, Santosh met his old friend Dayanand, who is from Hyderabad. Dayanand impressed him with stories of his city, and eventually Santosh agreed to quit his job and move to Hyderabad. But for this, he would need money, so he planned to rob Rajesh. He had had a little grasp of Dayanand's business, because he was accompanying him to wherever he went.

On January 25, Rajesh called Santosh to Bangalore to bring money. The amount was largeu00a0-- around Rs 23 lakh. Santosh saw a golden chance to rob his friend off the money. After completing their business, the duo went to a lodge at Gandhinagar. Before going to the lodge though, Santosh got Rajesh drunk.

Once back in the lodge and Rajesh sleeping off the effects of the alcohol, Santosh took the money and left for Hyderabad. Once there, he changed his mobile number. When Rajesh came to, he realised he had been robbed, but couldn't do much.

After he lodged a complaint, the police grilled Shekhar, but realised he had no idea about the crime. But then they got a lucky break, when on an investigation in Udupi, they found out that Dayanand was working in Hyderabad. One thing led to another, and within due time, Santosh was nabbed on February 19.

Shattered dreams
Police succeeded to recover Rs 12.2 lakhu00a0-- Santosh had used almost all of the missing amount to roam around cities. An official said that he had wanted to go to Switzerland, but couldn't procure a passport in time.u00a0 He had also put some money at a Mangalore bank.

Investigation officer G P Ramesh, Upparpeth police station, said, "Dayanand's mobile number helped us nab him. We have sent him to central jail."