Yangon police have arrested a cashier working for the state-run newspaper Kyemon Daily who set fire to her office in an attempt to make off with some of the cash inside.
The manager of Kyemon Daily, also known as The Mirror, was alerted by another staff member of a fire in the publication’s Pazundaung Township office on the evening of October 30. When he arrived on the scene, he found partially burnt cash and voucher books in the office’s safe.
The office’s accountants told the manager that the safe should have contained more than K88 million (US$64,420).
The manager called the police, who discovered that some of the cash in the safe had been replaced with pieces of newspaper cut in the shape of K500 notes.
They decided to investigate the office’s cashier, Phyu Phyu Win, who was in charge of the safe key. In her office, they found a plastic bottle containing gasoline and six bricks of K500 notes.
After being questioned, Phyu Phyu Win confessed to starting the fire as a cover for her attempt to take some of the money for herself.
She has been charged under Section 409 of the Myanmar Penal Code (Breach of trust by a civil servant), which is punishable by life in prison, and under Section 436 (Arson), which is also punishable by life in prison.
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