KARACHI, March 26: The Steel Town police on Saturday booked a cashier of a private bank who had reportedly gone missing with more than Rs4 million cash given to him to place it in the branch's automated teller machine, officials said.

They said the management of the Gulshan-i-Hadeed branch of the Soneri Bank came to know about the incident on Friday evening when customers complained that the ATM was out of cash.

“It set alarm bells ringing and despite several attempts the management failed to contact cashier Saeed Hussain, who had been given Rs4.5 million to put into the ATM,” said Inspector Yaseen Gujjar, the SHO of the Steel Town police station.

“The branch manager handed the cash to Hussain before the two-hour lunch and Friday prayers break. However, the cashier did not return after the break.”

He said it appeared that the suspect did not place the banknotes into the ATM and waited for the lunch-and-prayer break to leave the branch along with other members of the staff.“He is a resident of Larkana. We believe that some other staff members are also involved or at least aware knew his plan,” said the area SHO. He said the police registered a case (FIR 99/2011) under Section 392 (punishment for robbery) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the cashier, Saeed Hussain, on a complaint of the branch manager.