Collection agent cooks up robbery story to steal firm's money

A 22-year-old cash collection agent of a company has been arrested here after he allegedly cooked up a story of robbery and even inflicted injuries on himself to usurp nearly Rs 2 lakh collected from two clients, police said today.
The accused is Pankaj (22), a resident of Basti district in Uttar Pradesh. He worked for a company based in Sadar Bazar, they said.
Yesterday, Pankaj collected Rs 1,85,000 from two clients of the company. He then went to Kamla Market police station in Central Delhi with injuries and alleged that three youths had intercepted him at GB Road and they assaulted him and robbed him of the money.

However, police investigation burned holes in his version of the incident.
"The injuries allegedly caused by the robbers were found to be suspicious. Inquiry at the spot further raised suspicion as shopkeepers there said they did not notice any such incident," said a police official.
"During interrogation, the complainant broke down and admitted that he had misappropriated the money. He had kept it in his house and made a hoax call to mislead his employer and the police," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Central) Alok Kumar.
The money was subsequently recovered from Pankaj's residence at Nabi Karim and he was arrested.

It has been learnt that the company that hired him about seven-eight months ago did not forward his details to the police for verification.