Mumbai: Mulund accounting firm employee stages his own robbery, held

Screen grabs of the footage that exposed the scam

A 26-year-old employee of a Mulund-based accounting firm, S Wadekar, has been arrested for staging his own robbery in connivance with a friend. The latter, Chetan, ‘robbed' Wadekar of over Rs 13 lakh in cash after sedating him with chloroform. The accused had almost succeeded but were captured signalling each other with their hands shortly before the incident by a CCTV camera.

On Saturday morning, Wadekar left the office to collect Rs 20 lakh from a client in Ghatkopar and later went to meet another client in the area whom the firm owed Rs 6.25 lakh. After handing over the cash, Wadekar returned to the office with Rs 13.75 lakh in cash in the afternoon, but he was found unconscious outside the main door. A chartered accountant informed the Mulund police that someone had rendered Wadekar unconscious after holding a handkerchief dabbed with a sedative to his face and robbed his bag, which contained the cash. The police then registered an offence under sections 392 (robbery) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

During the investigation, the officials spotted the suspect in the footage of a CCTV camera installed inside the building but were surprised to see him signalling to the supposed victim. In the footage, the suspect was seen pouring something on his handkerchief, keeping the bottle inside his bag and then directing Wadekar to walk ahead of him, indicating that he would follow. The suspect was then seen following Wadekar, said the police.

The police eventually confronted Wadekar with the footage and the latter spilt the beans, leading to the arrest of Chetan. The duo claimed that they were unaware of the CCTV camera. Wadekar had hatched the plot as he was reportedly in debt, said the police. The authorities have also recovered most of the booty.

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Amt in rupees lakh Wadekar claimed he was robbed of

Inputs from Rajesh Gupta