Con man steals 57K cash from woman outside ATM

Bhandup police hunt for man who duped woman of ₹57,000 inside bank by claiming her withdrawal had fake notes, stealing cash under guise of helping her.

MUMBAI: The Bhandup police have launched a manhunt for an accused who allegedly duped a 60-year-old woman inside the bank claiming that money she withdrew had a mix of fake notes and under the guise of helping her identify, he stole ₹57,000 from the cash.

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On May 22, the complainant, Rajshree Laxmanaingh Kandari, a resident of Tanajiwadi, Bhandup, had gone to withdraw money from her savings account in a nationalised bank.

Kandari wanted to withdraw all the money in her account and requested a bank employee to help fill out her withdrawal form as she could not do so herself. She withdrew a total of ₹1.37 lakh from her account, said a police officer. She put the cash in her bag and was leaving when an unknown person from the bank approached her and told her that there was a fake note in her cash, said a police officer.

The person took the money from her hand and started checking the notes. The accused then kept the money in her bag again, informing her that all the notes received by her were genuine, the officer added.

The woman then went to another bank with her daughter to deposit the money. While counting the cash in the second bank, she discovered that she was short of ₹57,000 cash. The woman then approached the nationalised bank in Bhandup and raked up the issue of shortage of the notes with the bank staff.

The staff at the nationalised bank then checked CCTV footage and found out that the man who checked the notes had stolen ₹57,000 from the cash. The woman then reported the matter to the Bhandup police station. “We have found the footage of the accused and are looking for him,” said police inspector Anil Jaykar of the Bhandup police station.