Canara Bank officer arrested for stealing ₹10 lakh from Vrindavan temple's donation boxes
The accused has been identified as Abhinav Saxena, a resident of UP's Rampur.
An officer of the Canara Bank was arrested on Saturday for allegedly stealing around ₹10 lakh from the donation boxes of the Banke Bihari temple in Uttar Pradesh's Vrindavan. The man was arrested after CCTV footage showed him concealing bundles of cash in his clothes.
The accused has been identified as Abhinav Saxena, a resident of UP's Rampur. He was reportedly caught red-handed during the monthly counting of donation boxes.
Police circle officer (Sadar) Sandeep Kumar said, “One Abhinav Saxena, son of Saket Saxena and a resident of Rampur, UP, currently residing in Mathura, was caught red-handed during the monthly counting of donations from 16 collection boxes on Saturday.”
The security team of the temple noted during the counting that the official from the Canara Bank's Mathura branch had been concealing bundles of ₹500 and ₹200. They called the police, who frisked the accused in front of witnesses and recovered ₹1,28,600.
He later confessed during interrogation that he had stolen ₹8,55,300 during the previous two days of the counting. The money was recovered from his house in Mathura's Ashoka City.
The police have registered a case of theft and breach of trust.
"A case of theft and breach of trust has been registered based on a complaint filed by temple manager Munish Kumar Sharma. Saxena was arrested and presented before a magistrate and has been sent to judicial custody in the district jail on Sunday," said the officer.
The bank's Vrindavan branch manager, Mohit Kumar, confirmed that Saxena, who had been transferred to the Mathura loan department after serving in the Vrindavan branch from 2020 to 2024, had been suspended with immediate effect.
With inputs from PTI
