Woman loses jewellery worth ₹12.7 lakh from bank locker

₹12.7 lakh worth of jewellery and valuables stolen from a woman's bank locker in Mumbai. Police investigating, suspect possible insider involvement.

MUMBAI: A 62-year-old woman fell victim to theft as jewellery and valuables amounting to ₹12.7 lakh were allegedly stolen from her bank locker. The Kandivali police have registered a case against an unidentified person.

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Police officers said the theft occurred sometime in the past three months, but only came to light in the last week of February when the complainant checked her locker at the Union Bank.

According to the police, the complainant identified as Maya Gandhi, had visited the bank in December 2023 to move some valuables from her locker and to her son’s locker both under the same bank. “Two sets of keys are required to access any bank locker. While one key is with the locker owner, another key is with the bank,” said a police officer.

According to Gandhi on February 20, she wanted to retrieve some jewellery from her locker and when she went to the bank and opened her pouch to locate her key, she found it missing. After searching the house, when she could not locate the key, she went to the bank and was told that to break open the locker she would have to submit a written application. Since the locker was in the combined name of Gandhi and her son, who was in Australia, she asked him to mail the application.

A few days later after she submitted the application in the bank, the authorities broke open the locker when Gandhi found that her jewellery had been stolen.

The Kandivali police officers said that there was a possibility that the complainant forgot to lock her locker and left behind her key as she could not find the key anywhere in the house. The police registered a theft case under section 380 of the Indian Penal Code.

Police said there are no cameras in the locker room making it difficult to find out who accessed her locker. An inquiry is on and insider involvement has not been ruled out, “We are in the process of recording statements of the bank employees,” said a police officer from Kandivali police station.