New Delhi: A tourist from Dubai walked into a lavish ‘Hotel Continental' located on Marine Drive, Mumbai and walked off with cash worth Rs. 6.04 lakh. He kept that cash in his accounts as he was able to trick the accountant somehow. The case of forgery has been registered in Marine Drive police station.
The incident happened around 2 pm on August 26. A man walked straight to the reception of a five-star hotel and asked for a change of Rs.50. He received five notes of ten rupees each from the receptionist and then immediately gave a note of Rs.1000 to the receptionist. He again gave two notes of Rs. 500 each to the receptionist and asked for change.
This went on again for the third time. The tourist again asked the receptionist to give change of Rs. 500 as well. When the receptionist couldn't find the change for Rs. 500 from the counter, he went to get it from another accounts office. All this was just being done to find out the account office of the hotel, which the accused did at the same time the cashier went to get the change.
When the accused came to know about the accounts office, he straight away went there and asked change for Rs. 1000 notes. When the accountant Firoz was busy finding change for the requested money, the accused wittily removed the cash from the drawer and fled from the crime scene. Till the time Firoz could know what had happened, the accused had already fled from the scene and left the hotel premises.
When the accountant realized, he went to lodge a police complaint at the Marine Drive police station. The case has been registered under Section 380 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code. Though the police have obtained CCTV footage of that unidentified visitor, they aren't able to identify his face.
This case is a bit strange as the associate director of the hotel Sujata Gowda, is denying any such illegal act having taken place; Rajendra Chavan (Colaba Division). The ACP, however, said that the act has taken place. Moreover, he said that the theft has taken place in Hotel Intercontinental and the investigation was going on and the accused is still absconding.
