Feb. 10: Three employees of a printing, publishing and distribution house on Keshab Chandra Sen Street stole over 15,000 books worth Rs 20 lakh from the store and sold them to a pavement stall on College Street. All three have been arrested after one of them was caught stealing six books last night.

The person running the stall, where the stolen books were sold, was also arrested.

The theft came to light during the annual stock-taking at the Katha-O-Kahini publishing house in September. "We noticed discrepancies in the number of books in our stock and the number that should have been available according to our billing records. Around 15,000 books were missing," said Debraj Patra, one of the directors of Katha-O-Kahini.

Senior officials of the publishing house started keeping watch on the employees but a police complaint was lodged only after an employee of the billing section was caught red-handed last night.

Most of the stolen books were textbooks for classes IX to XII.

A CCTV camera placed over the billing section captured Debranjan Pal, 26, keeping aside a few books. As the cameras were switched off once the store was shut, there is no footage of Pal leaving the store with the books.

An employee of the store saw Pal, who had been working there for the past six years, keep six books in his bag yesterday. After work, as he was about to leave, Pal was asked to show his bag.

"Initially, he said it was a mistake but on prolonged questioning he admitted that he, along with two other employees, had been stealing books for over a year," Patra said.

A complaint was lodged with the Amherst Street police. Cops raided the bookstall where the books were sold and seized 150 books suspected to have been stolen from Katha-O-Kahini.

Police have also identified the other three accused - Amit Dey, 34, Kartick Bera, 19 and Sanjay Bhuniya, 24, owner of the bookstall. All four have been remanded in police custody till February 13.

Fatal fall from bus

A 34-year-old man died after he fell off a private bus on the Rabindra Sadan-Domjur route on Vidyasagar Setu on Friday. He was trying to take a call on his mobile phone.