The Case of the Missing Cash

In July 2019, Jeet Thakur Sahai had gone to Chandigarh for a three day training course. After he completed his course on the first day, he went to meet his friend Inspector Shyam Kant. Shyam had invited him so that they could have a coffee at a local restaurant.

Jeet: “Good to see you, Shyam brother. How are things?”

Inspector Shyam: “Good to see you too. Things are good. I needed some help with a case.”

Jeet: “Sure, let me know.”

The same evening Inspector Shyam took Jeet to his police station and showed him a file. Recently in a three floor apartment building, about 3 lakh rupees were stolen from apartment no. 205, one of the apartments on the 2nd floor. Its tenant, Mr. Shobhit Gupta, was very tense about his missing money.

Jeet wanted to see the apartment so Inspector Shyam took him there. The apartment was sealed by his colleagues, but Shyam and Jeet could enter it. Jeet took a look at the entire apartment. Inspector Shyam mentioned that his team was searching it as well.

Jeet looked at Shobhit’s bedroom carefully and noticed under the bed there was a black stain and part of the flooring looked a bit damaged. With Inspector Shyam’s help he pryed up the flooring and saw there was a hole in the floor. Shobhit’s briefcase that had 3 lakh rupees had fell from there on to the apartment below. The cash was missing for the past few days.

Jeet and Inspector Shyam rushed to the apartment below (no. 102) and knocked on the door.

The apartment’s tenant, Mr. Vaibhav Puri, answered.

Vaibhav: “Hello, how may I help you?”

Inspector Shyam: “Hello there. We are conducting an investigation. Do you know if a briefcase full of cash dropped from the above apartment’s floor to your apartment?”

Vaibhav: “No, I don’t think that happened. I am trying to recall but nothing as such happened.”

Jeet: “We will still have to take a look.”

Vaibhav: “Please come in.”

Inspector Shyam and Jeet started searching the apartment frantically. They were unable to find anything at first. Jeet noticed an enclosed water cooler machine (these are similar to air conditioners in India). He switched off its plug. Then on a chair he stood up and took off the cooler’s upper part. Usually the upper part has two panels with very little space in between. This cooler had three panels, and the space between the first and second panel was at least a few inches. There were nine plastic bags with cash stuffed in them and these bags were covered by small cloths.

Jeet gave these bags to Inspector Shyam and they counted the money. It was 2 lakh 80 thousand rupees. Upon more searching they found the briefcase behind the fridge.

Inspector Shyam arrested Vaibhav as he concealed information from him and was not honest. Upon further questioning and the investigation it was found out that when the briefcase fell to his floor Vaibhav decided to steal the money. He disclosed that he kept the remaining 20 thousand rupees in a cabinet in his apartment. He felt that the police would think thieves from outside the building came and stole the money. In a few weeks a court case against Vaibhav would commence.

Inspector Shyam notified Shobhit who was glad that he would receive his money after the paperwork for the investigation would be filed in a few days. Shobhit thanked Inspector Shyam and Jeet for their help with this case.

Inspector Shyam thanked Jeet for his help.

After his training ended in Chandigarh Jeet returned to Delhi so that he could resume his work.