2 rly cashiers arrested for Rs 44L theft at LTT

A day after Rs 44 lakh was found to be stolen from the cash room of the booking counter at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) at Kurla, Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested two cashiers on Tuesday. The arrested have been identified as Vinodkumar Pillai and Sameer Taharabadkar. GRP produced them in the court on Tuesday, which sent them to police custody till Saturday.

Senior GRP officials said, “The duo have been arrested over a suspicion,” but they are tight-lipped about the duo’s role and are yet to recover the money from them. Taharabadkar is from Talegaon, Pune, while Pillai is a resident of GTB Nagar, Sion. GRP sources said there are two more accused in the case, who are currently on the run and it is likely that the cash is in their possession. The incident came to light early on Monday when a booking clerk found Rs 44,29,501 in cash missing from the locker. This amount was the earnings from Saturday.

According to the police, Rs 44,29,501 was kept in the cash counter on Saturday. In the intervening night, Rs 8 lakh more was kept in the locker, while the cash collection on Sunday morning totalling Rs 11 lakh was also kept in the locker. Early on Monday, around 3am, a booking clerk found that the Rs 44 lakh kept on Saturday was missing and he informed the chief booking supervisor, LTT. An offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section of theft (380) house trespass (454, 457) against unknown persons was registered with the Kurla GRP.

In the first information report, the supervisor mentioned that the cashier on the morning shift, Pillai, had not handed over charge to the cashier on the second shift, Sameer Taharabadkar and and left after handing over the keys to a booking clerk, Pankaj Kumar Singh.