Autorickshaw flees with passenger’s bag with ₹66.85L cash

Autorickshaw driver arrested for stealing ₹66.85 lakh from businessman in Mumbai. Accused fled with cash, caught by police using CCTV footage.

Mumbai: A 50-year-old autorickshaw driver was arrested for fleeing with a bag with ₹66.85 lakh in cash from a businessman in Kurla. According to police, the victim, Sunil Barsu Firke, 55, a resident of Bhusawal in Jalgaon, had come to Mumbai on Saturday for a business visit and therefore, he was carrying ₹66.85 lakh in his briefcase.

HT Image

At about 8am, Firke took an autorickshaw from Kurla Terminus to the Grand Heritage Hotel at LBS Road in Kurla West, where he had made a reservation for his stay. The auto driver, identified as Mohammad Ayyaz Khutubuddin Khan, a resident of Andheri West, took the victim first to the Hyatt hotel in Santacruz.

As confusion arose about the location of his hotel, Firke asked Khan to stop at a spot on the CSMT road, where he saw some people. He got out of the auto in order to ask them the address of the Grand Heritage Hotel.

According to police, the autorickshaw driver sensed that Firke was not from Mumbai and tried to deceive him. Seeing the bag inside the auto while Firke was asking for an address, Khan saw an opportunity and fled.

Firke was screaming and asking for help to trace the auto for some time and later he approached the Kurla police station around 10am. The police verified the incident and registered a case against an unknown rickshaw driver under section 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code.

The police then scanned footage of the CCTVs where the incident occurred and the police managed to nab the accused from his residence at Juhu Galli in Andheri.

“We scanned footage of 30 to 40 CCTV cameras on the entire stretch in Kurla, Vakola, Santacruz and Andheri and managed to get the registration number of the rickshaw. The police traced the rickshaw owner’s house interrogated him and learnt that he was not driving the rickshaw but was given to another driver. He then informed the address of the accused and it was learnt that he was coming to the Gundavali area in Andheri, the police laid a trap nabbed him and brought him to the police station. During interrogation, he confessed to the crime and police recovered hundred percent cash ₹66.85 lakh from him. He was arrested in the case,” said senior inspector Ashok Khot of the Kurla police station.