Servant decamps with Rs 22 lakh

NAGPUR, APRIL 12: In a sensational theft incident, a servant employed with the Shaktikumar Sancheti family from Gokulpeth escaped with Rs...

NAGPUR, APRIL 12: In a sensational theft incident, a servant employed with the Shaktikumar Sancheti family from Gokulpeth escaped with Rs 22 lakh in cash which was kept in the house for making payments to labourers.

The servant, Sunil Poshan Mandal, was employed with the Sancheti family in Gokulpeth for the past five years and earned the family8217;s faith so much that he was the only person besides the family members who was allowed to handle cash inside the safe vault situated in the bedroom of Shaktikumar Sancheti.

The Sanchetis had brought a large amount of cash, running into lakhs of rupees for making labour payments at their construction sites all over the Vidarbha. The theft came to light when the Sanchetis opened the vault to take out cash for making payments. To their surprise, though the vault contained large amount of cash in variable denomination currency notes, bundles of Rs 500 denomination notes were found missing, while the rest were still intact.

After preliminary estimates, the Sanchetifamily has put the theft at Rs 22 lakh, even though members are still not confident how much cash was present in the safe vault. This morning, when the theft came to light, all servants and employees were summoned and questioned. At that time, Sunil Poshan Mandal, son of one of the trusted employees of the Sanchetis, Poshan Mandal, was missing.

The Sanchetis came to know that Mandal was last seen leaving the house by other employees on Saturday afternoon, when the entire Sancheti family had gone to watch a movie. Sunil Mandal had then left the house on the pretext of dropping clothes to the laundry. It is at that time when the theft is believed to have occurred.

Members of the Sancheti family told the police that prior to leaving the house, they had locked the wooden cupboard which enclosed the safe vault. But it never came to them to lock to the vault, they said. This morning, when the Sanchetis went to open the cupboard, the latch of the wooden cupboard was found to be broken and the cashmissing.