Two officials booked for stealing steel worth Rs 16 lakh

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Two officials of a company that provides construction material for Metro work along the Mumbai Central-Worli stretch, have been booked for a theft of 40 tonnes of steel worth Rs 16 lakh, after a store manager named them as accused in his complaint. After registering a case, Nagpada police have started investigation.

Dogus-Soma company has set up a godown at the Mumbai Central railway compound, where it stores all the construction material required for the Metro work. According to the police, on March 26, the stationmaster called up the store manager Aaqif Ashraf Khan and informed him that some material had been moved out of the godown. Puzzled, Aaqif called up his superiors and found out that no one was aware of the movement. He then called store assistant Shantanu Dhivar, who also denied having any knowledge about the incident. However, Aaqif did not find his answers to be consistent. "Then I called up a unit at Gundwali village in Bhiwandi, where we send goods for processing, but even they hadn't received any consignment," said Aaqif.

"When I called up civil supervisor Vikram Singh, even he gave me inconsistent answers. The second time I tried to contact Shantanu and Vikram, their phones were switched off. This is when I became suspicious of them," he added. Finally, the security guards on duty at the godown said that between 9.30 pm and 10.30 pm on March 24, a truck arrived at the spot and left with the steel. When contacted, the truck driver said Vikram had asked him to pick up the material.

Speaking to mid-day, Sanjay Baswat, senior inspector of Nagpada police station, said, "A case has been registered under IPC sections 381 and 34. We are interrogating all the employees of the company, including the prime suspects mentioned by the complainant."

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