Girl swindles Rs 12 lakh from mom’s employer; spends it on herself, lover

A 19-year-old girl who swindled Rs 11.90 lakh from the bank account of her mother’s employer and bought jewellery and a bike for her boyfriend has been arrested along with him by the city police.

The victim J Augustin Winfred (57) of Arumbakkam, an ex-BSNL staff, went to withdraw cash from his bank account in Saligramam on March 3 for constructing a new house. He found out that Rs 11.90 lakh had been withdrawn from his account from November last year to February. When he checked the statement, he found that the money had been transferred to two bank accounts, one of them belonging to Sumithra, daughter of his house help Valarmathi.

In his complaint to Arumbakkam police, Augustin Winfred had stated that Sumithra was well-known to him, and he let her use his phone whenever she accompanied her mother. When Augustin inquired Valarmathi about her daughter, she reportedly told him she ran away a month ago.

Based on his complaint, the cyber cell of Anna Nagar police traced Sumithra to Puducherry through her mobile phone and secured her along with her boyfriend R Sathish Kumar (32) of K K Nagar. During interrogation, Sumithra allegedly admitted that she transferred the victim’s money to her bank account and that of Sathish Kumar, using the victim’s phone and UPI id, to lead a posh life and ran away with him.

With the swindled money, Sumithra allegedly bought a 2.5 sovereign gold chain and a brand new motorbike for her boyfriend. Police also seized four mobile phones and Rs 90,000 from the couple.

Police said that Sumithra, a final-year college student, developed a relationship with Sathish Kumar a few years ago and decided to loot the victim’s bank account to help her boyfriend who lost his job due to lockdown and also to experience the luxury lifestyle.