Bank officer arrested for ₹58L theft from customers’ lockers

The arrested accused, Dilipkumar Krishnakumar Chavan, joined the Bank of India in 2013 and was posted at the Walkeshwar branch. Police officials said the theft, which occurred between March and April this year, came to the notice of one victim last month while the other learnt about it only two days ago

MUMBAI: The Malabar Hill police on Wednesday arrested a 35-year-old employee of a nationalised bank for allegedly stealing gold ornaments and cash worth ₹58 lakh from the lockers of two bank customers. The police said they had recovered 481 grams of the stolen gold worth around ₹35 lakh from him.

Bank officer arrested for ₹58L theft from customers’ lockers

The arrested accused, Dilipkumar Krishnakumar Chavan, joined the Bank of India in 2013 and was posted at the Walkeshwar branch. Police officials said the theft, which occurred between March and April this year, came to the notice of one victim last month while the other learnt about it only two days ago.

On July 17, Mrinalini Rajiv Jaisinghani, 28, realised that valuables worth around ₹31.52 lakh, including gold and diamond-studded ornaments weighing 323 grams, and ₹83,000 in cash and foreign currency worth ₹3.24 lakh were missing from her family’s two lockers at the bank. She approached the Malabar Hill police station, and based on her complaint a theft case was registered against unidentified persons.

Assistant police inspector Ghanshyam Borse and his team, investigators in the case, questioned several employees of the nationalised bank. During the technical verification, the police got some leads, after which some of the officers of the bank were questioned separately. The accused was then identified as Dilipkumar Krishnakumar Chavan, the custodian of the lockers. Chavan used a duplicate set of keys to steal the ornaments, said Mohit Kumar Garg, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 2.

The second case was registered on a complaint lodged by Deepak Mahendrakumar Nathwani, 66, a resident of Nepean Sea Road in Malabar Hill. Nathwani said he had kept gold and diamond-studded jewellery weighing 332 grams in his locker but found the valuables missing when went to the bank on August 1.

The police found electronic and technical evidence suggesting that Chavan, the custodian of the lockers, had used the duplicate set of keys with the bank, to allegedly steal the valuables from the lockers of the two customers. Police officials said that during the interrogation, Chavan confessed that he had committed the thefts and was placed under arrest. He has been booked under Section 380 of the Indian Penal Code.

The police produced Chavan before a metropolitan magistrate’s court on Thursday, and he was remanded to police custody for three days.