Mumbai is buzzing as Prathmesh Pawar, a senior clerk at Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), landed in police custody last week. The 33-year-old, from Khadakpada in Kalyan, allegedly swiped a massive Rs 21.8 lakh from the corporation's income tax payment account. For almost a year, he played hide and seek with the police before being nabbed in the Sion area by Nagpada police. How did this daring fraud come to light? It all started in June last year when Pawar suddenly stopped showing up for work. Claiming illness, he kept quiet as his juniors scrambled. When they tried to get the user ID and password for the vital income tax account, Pawar was nowhere to be found. The office then reached out to the bank to change the login details—and that’s when the storm broke! They discovered Pawar had quietly transferred Rs 21.8 lakh from the MSRTC account using his official login to his personal SBI bank accounts. The scam wasn’t a single grab; between April 12 and June 18, 2024, Pawar made multiple smaller transfers to dodge suspicion. The officials quickly filed an FIR under forgery, breach of trust, and the IT Act 2000 against him. Pawar was responsible for handling the corporation’s income tax through the SBI e-payment system in the Salary Employment Miscellaneous Department. After the heist, Pawar vanished. His family even reported him missing to the Khadakpada Police Station. The police conducted a deep search and technical tracking, which traced him all the way to Bhubaneswar in Odisha—but Pawar kept slipping from their grasp. Finally, a tip-off led the team to arrest him in Sion. The plot thickens as investigators reveal the stolen Rs 21.8 lakh was supposedly pumped into stock trading. Police are now hot on the trail to find and recover the missing money and uncover the full story behind this clever money diversion. This scandal hits MSRTC hard, showing how a trusted insider turned rogue right under their noses!