Man steals employer’s credit card, splurges Rs 1.37 lakh at bar

A 30-year-old man was arrested by the Malad police on Saturday for allegedly stealing his employer’s credit card and running up a bill of Rs1.37 lakh at a bar.

Ditesh Panda worked as a tempo driver for Girish Gala, owner of Gala stores, which deals in plywood and is located on SV Road in Malad (West), the police said.

“On January 5, Panda managed to steal Gala’s credit card that had been kept in the shop’s drawer. Since that day he stopped coming to work,” said sub inspector M Harpude.

Gala, however, learnt of the theft on January 20 when he received a message that his card had been used for a transaction of Rs6,000.

“Gala had got a new credit card and had not even started using it. So when he received the message he rushed to the bank, which informed him that his card was being used for the past two weeks,” said Harpude.

Gala told the police that Panda had stopped coming to work since January 5, the day the first transaction was made. “We checked the phone records of Panda that proved that he was had spent Rs1.37 lakh in a bar. We arrested him on Saturday and have secured his custody till January 25,” Harpude said. Police are trying to find out if anyone helped Panda in his crime.