Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd cashier fakes robbery, held

AURANGABAD: The city police - probing the daylight robbery of Rs 4.59 lakh belonging to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) - have found that the complainant in the case, an MSEDCL cashier, is the man accused and had cooked up the story to usurp the money. The accused - identified as 27-year-old Somnath Murlidhar Shete, a resident of Cidco - was arrested by the police on Tuesday.Following his routine schedule, Shete on Monday afternoon went to Jalna Road-based HDFC Bank on his motorbike to deposit Rs 4.59 lakh that MSEDCL received as bills paid by the consumers.After some time, he called his seniors to inform that unidentified bike-borne thieves snatched the bag containing money from him while he was busy checking his cellphone.Soon, the matter was brought to the notice of city police and accordingly a case of robbery was registered at Cidco police station. Taking serious cognisance of the issue, senior police officers visited the spot and reviewed the case.Cidco police inspector Kailash Prajapati said, "We soon started working on the case and also analysed the footages of the CCTV cameras. Some of the things mentioned by the complainant did not match with our findings, making us suspicious about his version."The Cidco police along with the crime branch cross-checked each and every information the complainant mentioned in his statement to the police only to find a number of loopholes in it.On Tuesday morning when the suspect was summoned for questioning he was giving vague and contradictory answers. The accused within no time gave up and admitted of cooking up the story. He was soon taken on record and an amount of Rs 3.67 lakhs was also recovered from his house. Outgoing assistant commissioner of police (crime) Khushalchand Baheti said, "The accused in an attempt to usurp the amount cooked up a robbery story. The accused, who is a government employee took the bag containing money, home and tried misleading the MSEDCL as well as the police."