E-commerce firm staffer held for ₹1.33-cr cash theft

The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by Sagar Dubey, 27, a Dadar resident who co-founded the e-commerce company in 2018 along with Harshil Sutare and Gautam Chauhan. The firm deals in electronics, particularly mobile phones, through online and offline sales

MUMBAI: A 25-year-old employee of an e-commerce firm in Dadar was arrested on Monday for allegedly masterminding the theft of ₹1.33-crore cash from his employer’s Prabhadevi office by hiring an outsider to execute the crime. Police have so far recovered ₹1.13 crore of the stolen amount.

E-commerce firm staffer held for ₹1.33-cr cash theft

The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by Sagar Dubey, 27, a Dadar resident who co-founded the e-commerce company in 2018 along with Harshil Sutare and Gautam Chauhan. The firm deals in electronics, particularly mobile phones, through online and offline sales.

According to the police, the company employs five workers and routinely stores cash from sales at its Prabhadevi office. Around ₹1.33 crore, collected since December 16, was kept in an office cupboard. On Saturday morning, when the employees reached the office, they found the biometric lock at the office entrance damaged. Dubey was informed and, upon inspection, they discovered that ₹1.33 crore had been stolen from one section of the cupboard, while ₹8.70 lakh kept in another section remained untouched.

“CCTV footage showed that the intruder moved around confidently, indicating familiarity with the premises,” said Dnyaneshwar Awari, senior police inspector at Dadar police station. “The biometric lock was disabled by cutting off its power supply, after which the accused used a duplicate key to enter the office and flee with the cash.”

Subsequently, a case was registered against the unidentified accused under Sections 331 (house-trespass and house-breaking) and 305 (theft in a dwelling house) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Assistant police inspector Ramkrishna Sagade said the investigation revealed that the person who entered the office was being guided via a WhatsApp video call. “The intruder had duplicate keys to another door and the cupboard and was instructed step by step,” he said.

Based on these findings, police concluded that the theft was an inside job. All staff members were questioned, leading to the arrest of Roshan Shivkumar Jaiswar, 25, a resident of Vakola in Santacruz, the officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahendra Pandit said Jaiswar had brought Ravi Kumar Jha from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh to carry out the theft and guided him on disabling the biometric lock and locating the cash. “We have recovered ₹1.13 crore from Jaiswar. The second accused is still absconding,” Pandit said.