The office employee, who stole Rs. 40 lakh in cash from music composer Pritam Chakraborty’s office at Goregaon in Bombay earlier this month, was recently arrested by the Malad (Bombay) police from Jammu.
Ashish Sayal, the accused, had roamed around in the Western suburbs of Bombay for 10 hours after committing the theft. He then sent all the stolen cash to Chandigarh through hawala before taking a flight there. The police have recovered Rs. 34 lakh and an iPhone worth Rs. 2.80 lakh which Sayal bought with some of the stolen money.
A film producer had sent Pritam Rs. 40 lakh, which his manager had kept in a bag in the office. Sayal slipped away with the bag around 10.30 p.m. when the manager went to meet Pritam at his residence for some work. Since Sayal had worked with Pritam for seven years, the music director did not complain immediately to the police and decided to wait for a day, hoping that he would have a change of heart and return with the money.
Ashish Sayal roamed Kandivli West, Marve Road, Charkop, Malwani, and Kandivli East in Bombay before going to Versova (Bombay) where he stayed with a friend. He sent the money to Chandigarh the following day and then flew there. After that, he moved to Jammu.
Officers said, it took them almost eight days to comb through the footage from 150-200 cameras. On reaching Jammu, police teams combed through surveillance camera footage there. They traced his location very close to the Indian border and despite facing opposition from locals, they managed to nab Sayal.
According to the police,Ashish Sayal had planned to buy a house with the stolen money.