Deep in debt, man fakes robbery in shop he worked in

Sanjay Kamble (26) had been working as an employee with Vinod Jain, a hardware store owner in Vile Parle for 10 years and was trusted beyond doubt by his employer.

Sanjay Kamble (26) had been working as an employee with Vinod Jain, a hardware store owner in Vile Parle for 10 years and was trusted beyond doubt by his employer. His employer’s trust, however, did not prevent a debt-ridden Kamble from trying to defraud his employer by faking a robbery and spiriting away with cash to the tune of Rs 1, 19,000.

As per inspector Ravindra Doiphode from the MRA Marg police station, “We received a complaint from Jain on the evening of November 12 that his employee, Kamble had been robbed by two persons on a motor bike near Hutatma Chowk while he was on his way back after collecting Rs 1, 19,000 in cash from a client.” Doiphode added, “When we spoke to Kamble, he claimed that two men on a Yamaha bike intercepted him, threw chilli powder into his eyes and also slashed his hand which held the bag and fled with the money.”

The cops, however, got suspicious after they examined his wounds as they seemed superficial.

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“Besides, his eyes did not seem like they had been attacked with chilli powder. This led us to suspect some foul play on Kamble’s part,” said Doiphode.

While Kamble was busy giving his statement to the police, another officer took his mobile phone and started going through the call register list.

While doing so, the officer noticed that the last call was made to a person named Shivaji just minutes before the robbery was supposed to have occurred.

“The officer called up the number and claimed to be a colleague of Kamble. On being asked whether the bag containing money was safe with him, he replied in the affirmative, confirming our suspicions that there was no robbery,” said Doiphode. “Shivaji, who turned out to be Kamble’s cousin, had no idea about the whole scenario and had just been asked Kamble to meet him in Fort. He also asked him to keep the bag safely,” said Doiphode.

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Shivaji was told to come to CST railway station and surrender the bag of money. Kamble confessed to having faked the robbery for the money as he was debt-ridden and needed money to repay them. He has been remanded to police custody till November 17 for further interrogation.

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