Thieves tunnel into bank, loot crores
A group of thieves decamped
with cash, jewellery and valuables from 77 lockers after digging up a
100 ft tunnel to break into a Punjab National Bank branch at Gohana in
Haryana's Sonepat district. The robbery came to light on Monday
morning when bank manager Devender Malik opened the bank's strongroom at
10am and found it broken. At least Rs 40 lakh cash was missing from it.
Sources said the robbers had broken 77 out of 360 lockers at the bank. The losses are estimated to run into crores.
The thieves chose an empty , disputed house to start their digging for the tunnel with 2.5 ft circumference. They had been digging for days and knew the exact location of the strongroom and lockers.
Preliminary investigations suggested the robbers chose a Sunday to strike since the area remains deserted over the weekend.
Police said the strongroom had an ordinary covering unlike other places, where locker rooms have at least one ft concrete covering with a thick iron sheet.“We have constituted teams to crack the case at the earliest,” said Sonipat SP Arun Nehra. He blamed the bank authorities for not following proper norms mandatory for the storage place where lockers are kept.The branch is one of the oldest in Gohana and has nearly 35,000 account holders with saving deposits of about Rs 125 crore.
Bank officials have asked clients, whose lockers have been broken into, to provide details of their contents.A special investigation team has been set up to probe the robbery for which the robbers apparently drew inspiration from Bollywood's “Dhoom” series films.
Sources said the robbers had broken 77 out of 360 lockers at the bank. The losses are estimated to run into crores.
The thieves chose an empty , disputed house to start their digging for the tunnel with 2.5 ft circumference. They had been digging for days and knew the exact location of the strongroom and lockers.
Preliminary investigations suggested the robbers chose a Sunday to strike since the area remains deserted over the weekend.
Police said the strongroom had an ordinary covering unlike other places, where locker rooms have at least one ft concrete covering with a thick iron sheet.“We have constituted teams to crack the case at the earliest,” said Sonipat SP Arun Nehra. He blamed the bank authorities for not following proper norms mandatory for the storage place where lockers are kept.The branch is one of the oldest in Gohana and has nearly 35,000 account holders with saving deposits of about Rs 125 crore.
Bank officials have asked clients, whose lockers have been broken into, to provide details of their contents.A special investigation team has been set up to probe the robbery for which the robbers apparently drew inspiration from Bollywood's “Dhoom” series films.
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