Cook hired by cooperative body accused of stealing ₹80,000 from Ashram Road office

The Navrangpura police have registered a theft case against a cook employed at a cooperative organisation after ₹80,000 allegedly went missing from the institution’s premises on Ashram Road in Ahmedabad.

According to police, the accused, identified as Monuram Satpal, a native of Mansurpur in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, had been working as a cook at the Gujarat unit of Sahakar Bharati, functioning from Chitra Ami Apartment on Ashram Road.

The complaint was lodged by Jeevan Sakharam Gole, 64, who serves as the organisational president of Sahakar Bharati’s Gujarat-Rajasthan region and resides at the institution premises.

Gole told police that Monuram had been hired on April 12 following a recommendation from his younger brother, Ajaybhai Samanto, who lives in the Maninagar area of Ahmedabad.

As per the complaint, Gole left for Vadodara on April 24 around 7 pm to cast his vote in the elections and returned to Ahmedabad on April 27. While travelling back, he allegedly tried contacting Monuram on his mobile phone several times, but the calls went unanswered before the phone was eventually switched off.

When Gole reached the institution around noon on April 27, he found that Monuram was missing from the premises. Upon checking the cook’s room, he allegedly discovered that the accused’s clothes and personal belongings had also been removed.

The complainant further stated that when he inspected his own room, he found that ₹80,000, which had been kept in a wooden cupboard, was missing. Police said the complainant suspects that the accused took the key kept on a table inside the room, opened the cupboard lock and fled with the cash.

Following the complaint, Navrangpura police registered a case of theft and launched an investigation. 

Officials said efforts are under way to trace the accused, whose mobile phone remains switched off.