02 March,2020 01:16 PM IST | Mumbai | Samiullah Khan
The accused Akashi Pawankumar Sharma. Picture/Samiullah Khan
The Bangur Nagar police arrested a banquet hall manager who had allegedly fled to Chandigarh after taking the booking amount deposited by over half dozen customers since last year. The police tracked the accused using the IP address of his Facebook account on February 29 and brought him to Mumbai on Sunday.
The accused has been identified as Akashi Pawankumar Sharma (31), a native of Chandigarh, who was initially working as a manager at Golden Leaf Banquet Hall at Mind space near Five -D link Road in Malad West.
He was absconding after taking bookings worth Rs 4.5 lakh paid by over half a dozen of his customers as advance to book the hall last year.
Having no clue about the Sharma's whereabouts, the PSI Sheetal Kumar Gaikwad found a lead in the case through a computer used in the office of the banquet hall through which the accused was operating his Facebook account.
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The accused had logged in his Facebook account using the office's computer but he had forgotten to log out before absconding. The police considered the computer as a clue and took a technical expert's help to track the accused with the IP address he was currently using to log in to his Facebook profile.
With the help of IP addresses, the police traced the accused to Chandigarh. Under the supervision of senior inspector Shobha Pise from Bangur Nagar police station, PSI Sheetal Gaikwad along with her team including Constable Nitesh Suryavanshi, Avinash Chavan, they reached Chandigarh and arrested Sharma. They brought him to Mumbai in the wee hours of Sunday, a police officer said.
During the interrogation, it was revealed Sharma had gone to Chandigarh after absconding from the banquet hall. He was working in an international BPO there. He had confessed of committing the crime, he was booked and arrested under sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code. He would be produced before the court on Monday, he added.
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