Sales manager of bank arrested for cheating senior citizen
A 30-year-old sales manager of a popular co-operative bank was arrested weeks after he swapped a senior citizen’s debit card while helping him withdraw money. The accused then stole ₹40,000 from his account. The banker was arrested after police traced him using the CCTV footage. The accused confessed to stealing the money out of greed.
On July 11, Ulwe resident Radheshyam Basak, 76, had gone to withdraw money from the ATM kiosk near his residence. Basak was fumbling with the card when the accused Pulkit Kumar, also an Ulwe resident, was in the kiosk. Kumar then offered to help and inserted his card correctly.
While doing so, Kumar stole a glance at the senior citizen’s PIN number. He also swapped Basak’s debit card with a defunct card. When the senior citizen left, he siphoned off ₹40,000 from Basak’s account.
After registering a cheating case, the NRI Coastal police procured the CCTV footage based on which the accused was identified. Officials said they were surprised by the fact that Kumar was a salaried sales manager at the bank with no criminal history.
“He has worked at a private bank for seven years and is now working at the co-operative bank’s Kharghar branch. He has a monthly salary of over Rs 50,000. Even during the lockdown, his job continued and he was drawing his regular salary,” said an officer adding that the accused is married and stays with his wife at their Ulwe apartment.
Following his arrest on Saturday, the police alerted the bank where he was employed. The bank has since terminated his employment, said police.
“During interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime and said he did so out of greed. He has been arrested and been remanded in police custody till Tuesday,” said Ravindra Patil, an inspector at NRI Coastal police station.
The police are also probing whether Kumar has similarly cheated other bank customers before.
