Inside job? Rs9.5m mysteriously disappear from currency exchange

Police suspect that employees of the money changer are involved

KARACHI:

A currency exchange was looted of Rs9.5 million in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on Saturday. The police have detained the manager of the money changer, two female employees and a watchman, suspecting it to be an 'inside job'.

Galaxy money changer, where the incident took place, is located near Baitul Mukarram Masjid, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, within the jurisdiction of the Aziz Bhatti police. The police were informed by the management of the company about the incident. They reached the site and began probing the case.

After initial investigations, the police officials felt that it was a strange case of money disappearing from the currency exchanger. "All the cameras and security alarm system installed at the money changer were closed," said Aziz Bhatti DSP Nasir Lodhi. "Not even a single lock was broken when we reached here."

The officer said that the police also questioned the two female employees of the money changer who claimed to be the first to visit the office after the incident. "We saw the lockers open when we came to work early on Saturday morning," said the officer quoting the two employees.

The employees told the police that they immediately informed the manager, Faisal, who later called the police and informed them about the incident. He said that as much as Rs9.5 million were missing from the lockers.

Police officials said that they also found a weapon of a security guard inside the currency exchange. They interrogated the watchman, Abdul Haq, who told the police that he had no information about the incident. "The money was insured and the insurance would have expired on October 7," said the DSP. "However, the incident took place before the date of expiration."

Aziz Bhatti SHO Sarfaraz Alyana said that the crime scene suggests that the robbers were aware of everything inside the currency exchange. He said that the manager told the police that a total of Rs9.5 million were robbed, which included 39,000 Pakistani rupees.

The remaining robbed money was in foreign currency, such as US dollars, Riyals and Dirhams. "We suspect that insiders were involved and we have detained a manager, two female employees and a watchman to investigate the case," said SHO Alyana. A case has yet to be registered.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2014.