The Yerawada police on Tuesday arrested two employees of House Full International shopping mall located in Kharadi for allegedly stealing cash and valuables worth Rs8.50 lakh on Sunday night.

A police team headed by assistant police commissioner Rambhau Thorat and senior police inspector Prasad Hasabnis made the arrest under the guidance of deputy commissioner of police (Zone IV) Jallindar Supekar. The suspects have been identified as Sandeep Rokade (25) of Keshavnagar in Mundhwa and Rajan Pote (28) of Satavwadi in Hadapsar.

Supekar said that Rokade was working in the shopping mall while Pote works as IT officer in the mall. The police have recovered cash of Rs1.37 lakh and jewellery worth Rs7.13 lakh from the duo. "The recovery was made from Pote's residence," he said.

"Interestingly, the mall's close circuit television system was not functioning for the last two months while the mall has hired an incompetent security agency, which led to such incidents in the mall. Earlier, a theft of Rs55,000 was reported in the mall on January 20, this year," he said.

Supekar said that it has been found that the shopping mall operators had not maintained records of their employees that created problems for the policemen investigating the case.

Hasabnis said that business manager of the mall Laukik Deshmukh, a resident of Kharadi, lodged a complaint with the police.

Hasabnis said it has been revealed that Rokade checked out of the shopping mall by offering his biometric features (finger impressions) on the machine but immediately told the security officer that he had forgotten his lunch box inside the mall. He entered the mall and stole cash and valuables and when he left, the security guard did not frisk him, he added.

After questioning Rokade, the police found that Rokade along with few others, including Pote, had hatched the plot to steal valuables from the mall. "Pote had recently joined the service and he had planned the theft," he said.

"Pote and Rokade were in contact with each other when latter was stealing valuables from the mall," he said.

DNA Correspondent/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication