Mumbai: How cops nabbed Pritam robber in 8 days before he burned all the cash

The Malad police have arrested the office boy of music director composer and musician Pritam Chakraborty who allegedly absconded with Rs 40 lakh in cash from the artistersquos studio on February 4 The accused Ashish Sayal 32 was traced to Samba district in Jammu where he was nabbed on Wednesday Sayal was brought to Mumbai early on Friday on transit remandThe cops have recovered 95 per cent of the stolen cashOn the day of the alleged theft producer Madhu Mantena had sent the bag to the studio located on the GoregaonMulund Link Road as part of a business transactionCCTV footage of Ashish Sayal lugging around the bag on the day of the theftPritamrsquos manager Vinit Chheda placed the bag in the studio office in the presence of Sayal and other staff members Later he found the bag missing and was informed that Sayal had taken it claiming he was going to deliver it to Pritamrsquos residence Chheda immediately informed Pritam about the situation However the music director initially believed that Sayal would return as he had been working for him for nine years After waiting overnight and seeing no sign of Sayal Pritam instructed his manager to file a police complaint A manhunt was then launched A team led by PSI Tushar Sukhdeve along with his detection team under the guidance of Anand Bhoite DCP Zone XI Senior Inspector Vijaykumar Panhale and Police Inspector Sanjay Bedwal made multiple attempts to track him downOn the runAccording to the police after committing the crime the accused roamed around the suburbs for seven hours to throw authorities off his scent and eventually boarded a flight to AmritsarThe accused Ashish Sayal who worked for music director Pritam for nine years in the custody of the Malad policeA police officer said ldquoHe travelled through Malad Kandivli Charkop and other areas eventually reaching a friendrsquos home in Versova carrying the bag full of cashrdquo Tracking the accusedrsquos movements proved challenging for the police It took them eight days to uncover his escape route as his mobile phone was switched offldquoEventually a breakthrough came after we learnt Sayal had travelled to Versova It was there where he took help to transfer the cash via an angadia traditional courier to Chandigarh He reached Amritsar via flight a day after the theft From there travelled via cab to Chandigarh collected the money and boarded a bus to Kashmirrdquo said an officer According to the police the accused originally from Kashmir did not immediately return home Instead he stayed at various hotels in Jammu and Kashmir to avoid detection He spent approximately R3 lakh purchasing the latest iPhone and a laptopSamba situationAccording to the police Sayalrsquos wife resided in Samba district near the IndoPakistan border and her father is a subinspector in the Jammu policeldquoAfter absconding from Mumbai the accused travelled to Jammu to attend the wedding of his sisterinlaw which took place on February 21 However just two days before the wedding the police arrested him while he was shopping with his wife in a market in Sambardquo said a police officerAlthough locals initially created a commotion they stopped protesting and cooperated with the police after being informed about the accusedrsquos crime The Malad police team then raided the accusedrsquos inlawsrsquo house in Samba where they recovered the stolen bag during a search and recovered approximately Rs 34 lakh in cash as well as the iPhone and laptop According to the police if Sayal had managed to evade arrest for another ten days a significant portion of the money would have been spent on the wedding expenseslsquoSayal was insecurersquoA police officer said ldquoPritam was not happy with Sayalrsquos work Therefore he asked the accused to work in another production house and even promised to help him find a job Sayal felt that he was about to get the bootrdquo ldquoHe is expressing shame telling us lsquoI made this mistake out of ignorancersquordquo the officer added Pritamrsquos manager Chheda declined to comment on the matterFebruary 19Day accused was arrestedHow the case was cracked thinspAshish Sayal escapes with R40 lakh from Pritamrsquos GMLR office on February 4 thinspWalks for seven hours through a circuitous route to reach friendrsquos home in Versova thinspShips bag of money to Amritsar with a human courier angadia and takes a flight there thinspReaches Samba Jammu home of his fatherinlaw who is a JampK cop thinspBuys iPhone and laptop with money planning to spend the rest for sisterinlawrsquos wedding thinspCops track him down and recover the remaining R34 lakh in nick of time before it is spentSayal took care of Pritamrsquos parents during pandemic Pritam first met Sayal about nine years ago during a visit to Vaishno Devi The accused introduced himself as a singer who had a deep interest in performing Impressed by Sayalrsquos rendition of bhajans and kirtans the music director decided to hire him During the COVID19 pandemic Sayal took care of Pritamrsquos parents and looked after the composerrsquos wellbeing earning his trust