Mid-Day

Mumbai, May 21: An 18-year-old boy, who needed Rs 50,000 for his mother’s operation, stole Rs 10 lac from his employer in Gujarat on May 15. Gangaram Debuha, a Nepali youth, was apprehended on May 16 by the Bandra railway police.

He was caught during a routine baggage check after he alighted from the Gujarat-Mumbai Saurashtra Express at the Bandra terminus with his friend Tatendra Shatriya (18).

Debuha’s bag revealed bundles of Rs 100 and Rs 500, which he said belonged to his uncle in Gujarat.

The cops got even more suspicious when they asked him to come to the police station and he said he was willing to give up the money. A diary in the bag finally revealed the source of the cash.

Debuha used to work as a security guard at timber businessman Chand Goyal’s bungalow in Gandhidham, Gujarat.

Goyal, who had lodged a complaint with the local police, flew down to Mumbai with a police team on learning about the detention of the boys. They were arrested by the Gujarat police.

According to investigating officer N Sadhu of Gujarat’s Adhampur police station, two days before the theft, Debuha received a phone call from his brother in Punjab, who told him they needed Rs 50,000 for their mother’s operation.

That’s when he decided to steal the money from his employer. Goyal treated Debuha as a family member, so he knew where the locker and keys to it were.

On the day of the theft, both Goyal and his wife were out of the house. Debuha got lucky as he found the money Goyal had received against a recent sale of timber in the locker.

Debuha told the police that he was illiterate and could not count the currency so he decided to escape with the entire loot. Both Debuha and Shatriya have been remanded to judicial custody.