A cook, employed in a private finance firm, landed in jail after enacting a robbery drama at the company located in Ramalinga Nagar in the city on Sunday.
The Woraiyur (Crime) police recovered the “stolen cash” totalling Rs. 1.22 lakh from a garbage bin nearby upon interrogating the cook who confessed to having dropped it in the bin.
The accused — P. Pidaram (30) — was employed as a cook for four collection agents who were staying in the firm’s office at Ramalinga Nagar. The firm’s owner and the complainant P. Senthil Kumar of Valayapatti in Pudukottai district used to go to his native place on weekends.
The police sources said the collection agents — Karthik, Kandasamy, and Kumar — went out for a movie on Saturday night. Upon returning to their room in the early hours, they found Pidaram locked up inside the bathroom with his mouth gagged and his limbs tied.
Pidaram told them two persons attacked him on his head with a wooden log and inflicted cuts in the forearm and took away Rs. 1.22 lakh kept in the wooden drawer after twisting open the lock. Believing Pidaram’s claim, Mr. Karthik immediately alerted the police control room and the firm’s owner. A police team on night rounds visited the spot and enquired with Pidaram and the collection agents.
As Pidaram was giving incoherent replies, the investigators quickly concluded that his claim was bogus and that he was only enacting a drama. There were neither injuries on his head nor deep cuts anywhere in the body. Pidaram reportedly confessed that he had put the cash in a plastic wrapper and dropped it in a garbage bin so as to take it the next morning, the sources said. The case was cracked in 30 minutes, a police officer said.
The Woraiyur (Crime) police have booked a case against Pidaram under IPC section 381 (theft by servant).
