Mathura: A Canara Bank officer has been arrested for allegedly stealing nearly Rs 10 lakh from the donation boxes of the Thakur Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan here, police on Sunday said.
The theft was uncovered after temple security monitoring CCTV footage observed the officer concealing bundles of cash in his clothing.
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.”
Monitoring CCTVs, the temple security noticed Saxena, an official from the Canara Bank Mathura branch, concealing bundles of Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes in his pants.
When the alleged theft was spotted, temple authorities alerted the police, who frisked Saxena in front of witnesses and found on him Rs 1,28,600.
During interrogation, Saxena confessed to stealing over the previous two days an additional Rs 8,55,300, which was later recovered from his house in Ashoka City, Mathura.
“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, has been suspended with immediate effect.
The bank has also initiated its own internal investigation into the matter.
