The Santa Cruz police on Wednesday arrested an employee of a bar for allegedly murdering the cashier in February this year. According to the police, the accused had killed the cashier to steal money from the safe.

The accused has been identified as Sagar Kumar (22) and the victim as Uday Shetty.Kumar. Kumar has been remanded to police custody till July 13. The police are now looking for the stolen booty.

On February 17, Shetty was found lying in a pool of blood by his colleagues in a room in Sangeet Bar in Santa Cruz. He was bludgeoned to death by a heavy object. Someone had stolen money from the drawer in his room, and approximately Rs 2 lakh were missing from the bar’s safe on the first floor. After initial investigations the police concluded that someone familiar with the bar could have committed the crime as the accused knew the keys to the safe were in Shetty’s custody.

Kumar was arrested on Wednesday from the premises of the bar where he had been living since the incident took place. He had been working with the bar for six months when the crime took place, and lived in Bhayandar earlier.

“Not wanting to attract suspicion, he didn’t leave the bar after committing the crime but continued to work there,” said Senior Police Inspector M Chaudhury from Santacruz police station.

“We began suspecting him after we found a few discrepancies in his answers during the interrogation. After a friend of his told us that Kumar was not home at the time of the murder and we arrested him,” added Chaudhury.