Bengaluru: Cashew dealer held for stealing Rs 16 Lakh worth nuts from friend

Bengaluru: The Vyalikaval police arrested a 25-year-old cashew dealer who had stolen nearly 2,000 kg of cashew nuts worth Rs 16 lakh from his friend’s warehouse. The police arrested him within 24 hours after the incident was reported.

The accused, Prashant Tanaji Patil, a resident of Basaveshwara Nagar and hailing from Sangli district in Maharashtra, was been arrested on Thursday.

On Tuesday night, he stole the cashews from a warehouse in Vyalikaval 12th Cross which belongs to his friend Rajesh Kumar, a dry fruits trader. On Wednesday morning when Rajesh went to the warehouse he found cashew nuts missing and immediately filed a complaint with the police stating that 198 tins containing 1,980 kg of cashew nuts were stolen from his warehouse. He stated that the thieves had used duplicate keys.

Vyalikaval Police Inspector K.N. Sudhakar and team immediately gathered all the information and zeroed in on Prashanth and caught him within a few hours.

Police said they suspected Prashanth as he was supplying cashews to several retail shops in the city and had recently suffered huge losses. He knew Rajesh for the last two to three years and decided to steal the goods to make up his losses. Prashant had planned it in advance and knew where Rajesh had stored the goods. He had also got a duplicate key of the warehouse.

On Tuesday night, he came to the warehouse, stole the cashews and stored them at his friend’s house. He was planning to leave the city but was caught.

Vyalikaval police have registered a case and have recovered all 198 tins of cashew nuts from the accused.