By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An employee who said he was held up during what prosecutors say was a staged robbery in the Diamond District testified Thursday that he had believed the robbery was real.
Ujjwal Bista, 27, said he saw his boss, Atul Shah, nearly "have a heart attack" when two men dressed as Hasidic Jews entered the office and pointed what prosecutors said were toy guns at their heads.
Bista and Shah were tied up, their faces covered with masks as robbers apparently cleared out a safe that may have contained valuables, according to testimony.
Prosecutors said the safe was filled with empty boxes as part of the ploy concocted by Shah and his business partner Mahaveer Kankariya, who are both on trial for allegedly staging a robbery using fake robbers who wore the garb of Hasidic Jews and flaunted plastic handguns.
They were in debt and trying to cash in on a $7 million insurance payout by setting up the phony heist, prosecutors said.
But the robbery, by the account of Bista who was working that day, could not have seemed more real.
"His body was trembling, his face was red and he was crying a little," Bista said, in reference to Shah, on the witness stand Thursday. Shah was in the office with him on Dec. 31, 2009 on the day of the alleged robbery.
He said he rushed to untie his boss because he feared he was "breathing heavy" and he was worried he'd have a medical problem.
"Was there any doubt in your own mind that this was a real robbery?" Bista was asked on cross-examination by Shah's attorney Benjamin Brafman.
"I thought the whole time it was a real robbery," said Bista, who continued to work for Shah and Kankariya for another year after the incident.
"And were you afraid?" Brafman asked.
"I was afraid," the employee said.
What followed was a state of confusion, he said. They freed themselves but they had no idea if the robbers were still there and the office — including the owners — was in shock, Bista said.
"i just sort of stood by [Shah] and said it;s okay," said Bista.
Bista then called 911 and recounted the events to police.
Shah and Kankariya are charged with attempted grand larceny and insurance fraud.
A video played in court yesterday shows they were filling the safe with empty boxes in preparation for the robbery, prosecutors said.
They allegedly tried to destroy that tape with industrial strength drain cleaner but the footage was recovered.
Their bench trial before Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Thomas Farber opened this week.
