BENGALURU: A 25-year-old credit card facilities manager at a private bank in Nagarbhavi, S Varun Gowda, has learnt the hard way that finders cannot always be keepers. Instead, following the ‘finders-keepers’ belief landed him in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. It took six days for him to learn that lesson.
On the morning of September 6, Varun found a carton with cash of Rs 94 lakh in denominations of Rs 500 on his scooter seat outside his bank, and believing it to be an act of Providence giving him such a huge fortune, took it home. Overwhelmed by the sudden wealth in his possession, he even made an initial advance of Rs 5,000 to buy a second-hand SUV, despite his mother insisting that he report his find to the police.
On the night of September 12, Chandra Layout police were at his doorstep, having checked about 300 pieces of footage from CCTV cameras near Varun’s bank in Nagarbhavi till his residence in Kalappa Block in Girinagar. On confessing that he had brought the carton filled with Rs 94 lakh in cash home, he was arrested and booked for theft under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Chandra Layout police said that at about 11.45 a.m. on September 6, when Varun left his bank for an errand, he found the carton filled with cash on his scooter seat. A few moments earlier, 28-year-old businessman Pramod Swamy had left his residence opposite the bank, carrying the carton with the cash to take it to a friend’s office and then to a legal consultant.
Pramod and his air-hostess wife had planned to buy a site, and the money was part of the transaction. As he reached his car parked outside his house, he decided to check on the documents and absentmindedly placed the carton on the seat of the nearest two-wheeler, which happened to be Varun’s. After checking the documents, Pramod sat in his car and then drove away, leaving the carton with the cash behind.
DCP: Money recovered from banker’s house
Pramod remembered the carton en route to his friend’s office and returned, only to find the scooter on which he had kept the carton gone. He immediately rushed to file a complaint with the Chandra Layout police.
S Girish, DCP, West, confirmed to TNIE: “We managed to trace the accused’s scooter parked outside his house in Girinagar. He was arrested on Tuesday night. The money was recovered from his house.”
An investigating official said, “Although the accused is not at fault, he is still technically at fault for taking the money home. The accused should have approached the police to find it.”