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Burglars tunnel their way into SBI vault, steal about 2 kg gold
The burglars dug an 8-metre long and four-ft wide tunnel horizontally and another three-ft tunnel vertically to enter precisely in the strong-room. They did not touch ₹35 lakh in cash that was in another locker.They used a gas cutter to open the locker which had the gold mortgaged to the bank by 29 people against loans.
Kanpur: Burglars breached the strong-room of State Bank of India’s Bhauti branch in Kanpur Outer through an underground tunnel and took away 1.812 kg of gold kept in a locker on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. The theft was detected at 11 AM on Friday.
The burglars dug an 8-metre long and four-ft wide tunnel horizontally and another three-ft tunnel vertically to enter precisely in the strong-room. They did not touch ₹35 lakh in cash that was in another locker.
They used a gas cutter to open the locker which had the gold mortgaged to the bank by 29 people against loans.
The burglars disabled the alarm system and turned the sole CCTV camera in the strong-room the other way.
The heist was discovered at 11 AM when some staff members entered the strong-room to get the cash and saw the locker broken.
Commissioner of police, Kanpur BP Jogdand reached the branch that was established in 1969. “It may have taken days to make such a tunnel. We suspect an insider passed off key information to the burglars to strike with such precision,” he said. “The CCTV footage is being examined and several teams have been formed to solve this case,” he said.
The SBI Bhauti branch is spread in 2200 sq feet area with staff strength of 19. The branch is among the few that have a good chest and provide loans against gold. There is a vacant plot on one side with excessive wild growth and another one behind that has a guard. There is a petrol pump on the other side.
The burglar chose the plot with wild growth to make the tunnel. For this, they had to scale a 10-ft high boundary wall to get down to the digging point.
They made an opening in the wall and started making the tunnel exactly where the foundation of the wall ended.
Since the plot is not frequented and growth provides a perfect cover, they stored the mud and debris in dense bushes. People living nearby and the guard in the adjacent plot told the police they did not see any activity in the day or at night.
Bank manager Neeraj Kumar Rai said the heist was the result of months of planning and execution. “For the past 12 days, the branch is undergoing an audit and everyone was staying back till 11 pm, sometimes till past midnight. Anyone of us would have noticed anything unusual if the tunnel was being dug during the past two weeks,” he said.
“It is sure some insider helped the burglars with recce and provided key information,” he added.
The burglars were adequately equipped with tools that they used to make the tunnel, break open the RCC floor and open the locker that is encrusted with concrete.
Police have found a small drill machine in the strong-room. The police teams hit a block when they found the bank had only one CCTV camera that was installed in the strong-room. That camera was turned away either by the insider or the burglars, said officials involved in the investigation. The DVR has been taken into custody after the bank’s technician could not provide the footage. It would be sent to the forensic department, they said.
Surprisingly, the burglars did not open the other locker with ₹35 lakh cash. “May be they were short of time or smartly avoided taking cash as the serial number on currency notes could lead the police to them. Gold is much easier to dispose of,” officials said.
DCP West Vijay Dhull said the investigating teams were obtaining as much footage as possible from neighbourhood cameras.” It is certain those involved frequented the bank’s vicinity in course of their planning. We are trying to find such people,” he said.
This is the second such heist in which the burglars made a tunnel to strike it rich. Back in 1997, burglars entered the SBI’s Govind Nagar branch after digging a 60-ft-long tunnel in six months.
