Employee steals diamonds worth ₹12L, blames employer for gold theft

Mumbai: A diamond polishing and designing unit employee was booked after his employer accused him of misappropriating 19 diamonds worth ₹12 lakh recently

Mumbai: A diamond polishing and designing unit employee was booked after his employer accused him of misappropriating 19 diamonds worth ₹12 lakh recently. This led to the unfolding of a major drama at the Dahisar police station, where the accused told the police that the employer had stolen his gold chain.

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Milan Dave, the complainant, a diamond merchant from Borivali, told the police that he had employed Arvind Kumtekar nine months back, based on the reference of another employee, Shashikant Phanse who had worked with him for the last six years. Phanse had introduced Kumtekar as his childhood friend.

Dave was impressed with Kumtekar’s work and took a unit for him on rent at Agarwal Estate in Dahisar. Ten to 12 daily wage workers worked with him at this unit. In September 2021, the accused told Dave that he could not find a diamond worth ₹15,000 that was given for polishing. As the amount wasn’t a lot, Dave did not bother much about the loss.

On September 20, 2021, Kumtekar was given a design with 122 diamonds to work on. But he told his employer the next day that some of the diamonds were missing. Dave reached the unit along with Phanse and other workers and found that nineteen diamonds were missing.

Kumtekar said he had looked everywhere, but could not find the missing diamonds. The complainant, however, suspected him of stealing the diamonds, and when Phanse called up his wife, she pleaded with them to let go of her husband and promised to pay back the sum.

Kumtekar offered his gold chain and motorcycle keys as security till he could arrange the amount. But Dave returned him the motorcycle keys and gave the gold chain to Phanse as surety.

Thereafter, Dave said, Kumtekar tried to lodge a false complaint against him at Dahisar police station but was not successful. He promised to return the diamonds but did not and eventually, Dave lodged a police complaint. After a preliminary probe, an FIR was registered under section 406 IPC on October 3. No arrest has been made yet.