Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 1: Personnel of Marathahalli police station have succeeded in taking into custody the son of a coffee planter based in Somwarpet, Kodagu district, along with the money stolen by him. The man had fled with Rs 52 lac in cash belonging to a bank.

The arrested person has been identified as K K Paramesh, employed with CMS Security Agency. He used to work for the agency, and was entrusted with the job of replenishing cash into the ATMs of private banks. On March 9, he had fled with Rs 52 lac that was to be loaded into two ATMs of ICICI Bank. The cash was later found to have been hidden inside earthen pot kept in a shed located in the farm house belonging to his family.

The police said they have succeeded in recovering Rs 51.5 lac from Paramesh.

Paramesh had dropped out of college when pursuing LLB degree without pursuing the course. He later started working for the above security agency that puts cash into ATMs of banks. Since the last two years, Paramesh had been working for the company. He used to discharge duties in three capacities, driver, custodian, and security staff for the cash van. On March 9, he recorded that he had remitted cash to two ICICI Bank ATMs located on Tulasi Road, Marathahalli. He kept the cash in a bag he had with him, visited the office, filled in a report for having loaded cash into the ATM machines, before returning. He had left his vehicle back at the office. He also was found to have vacated the rented room in which he was living at Gare Palya in the city and returned to his native place along with cash.

The bank people noticed after two days that cash had not been put into the ATMs by Paramesh. They alerted CMS Agency which in turn filed police complaint. The police checked his cellphone location of the missing man and realized that he had gone to Somwarpet. When a team went to his place to take him into custody, Paramesh succeeded in fleeing before the team reached there. He had called a relative from another number. On the basis of this information, the police arrested him, and Paramesh confessed to his crime during interrogation, the police stated.

No family members of Paramesh or workers at the estate and farm house were aware that cash was hidden in the earthen pot that was lying inside the shed. They were taken by surprise when Paramesh showed that such a huge amount of cash was kept inside an earthen pot. He had spent Rs 50,000 out of the stolen cash.