The manager of Bollywood music composer Pritam Chakraborty has lodged a complaint with the Malad police after one of their staffers allegedly fled with Rs 40 lakhs from their office.
According to police, the suspect has been identified as Ashish Sayal, 32, and teams have been formed to trace him.
Police said the incident occurred around 2pm on February 4 when a person working with a production house went to Chakraborty’s music studio, Unimus Record Pvt. Ltd., in Goregaon and handed over a bag containing Rs 40 lakhs in cash to his manager Vineet Chedda. Along with Sayal, Ahmed Khan and Kamal Disha were also present at the studio.
“The manager, who took the cash, kept it in a trolley bag in the office and subsequently went to Chakraborty’s house, which is in the same building, to get his signature on some documents,” an officer said.
However, upon returning, Chedda noticed that the trolley bag, in which he had kept the cash, was missing. He initially inquired with other staffers, who alleged that Sayal had left with the bag under the pretext of taking it to Chakraborty’s residence.
Police said the manager then tried contacting the suspect, but he did not answer. Later, when he switched off his mobile phone, Chedda suspected something was amiss, and he informed Chakraborty.
“On the music composer’s advice, he approached the police station and lodged a complaint. A case of theft has been registered, and we are trying to trace the suspect. We are reaching out to his relatives and also working on leads through his mobile phone’s call data record,” an officer said.
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“We are also trying to understand whether he had recently asked anyone for money, as that could help us determine the reason for the theft,” said a police officer investigating the case.