Thieves cut wall and floor of bank in east Delhi, steal ₹55 lakh cash

Since the suspects disabled the CCTV cameras of the bank, it was not immediately clear how many of them entered the bank and for how long they remained inside to execute the heist.

Unidentified thieves cut through a wall and floor of the Union Bank of India’s branch in east Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar, broke open the iron vault and stole around ₹55 lakh cash on Sunday. The break-in was found on Monday morning when the bank employees reached the building and reported the matter to the police control room around 10.30am, the police said.

Police said the heist took place on Sunday, when the bank was shut for the weekend holiday. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Since the suspects disabled the CCTV cameras of the bank, it was not immediately clear how many of them entered the bank and for how long they remained inside to execute the heist. Besides a portion of the vault which was broken with the help of gas cutters, the thieves did not touch any lockers and nearly ₹50 lakh cash that was kept in another portion of the vault, senior police officers said.

Investigators suspect that the thieves may have run out of gas, forcing them to leave the lockers intact.

“The stolen money was cash collection and transactions of Friday and Saturday. We have registered a case of trespass and theft against unknown persons at the Farsh Bazar police station. Prime facie, it appears that the thieves conducted a detailed reconnaissance of the bank and planned everything meticulously. We have got certain clues in the case. Several teams are working on them,” said deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram.

Police said the heist took place on Sunday, when the bank was shut for the weekend holiday. They said the thieves first entered a vacant under-construction building adjacent to the bank after breaking its lock.

“The suspects drilled a hole in the bank’s wall through the adjacent under-construction building. They entered the ground floor of the bank and drilled their way into the basement through the floor. Once inside the basement, the thieves cut open the vault, took out the cash and fled using the same route through which they entered the premises,” said a senior police officer, who asked not to be named.

DCP Sathiyasundaram said the theft came to light when the bank’s employees reached the bank and informed the police. The local police along with crime scene inspection team and forensic experts reached the spot and collected evidence. The entire building has been cordoned off and the forensic teams have collected fingerprints and other evidence from the scene, the DCP said.

Investigators said the role of an insider could not be ruled out. They have prepared the list of all employees as well as security guards and are ascertaining their whereabouts when the heist took place. The CCTV cameras installed around the bank are also being scanned to find if any suspicious activities were captured on the day of the crime or in the last couple of weeks, when the suspects may have carried out the reconnaissance.

The investigators are also preparing a list of criminals who were previously involved or arrested for similar crimes.

A similar bank heist took place in outer Delhi’s Mundka in December 2017. The thieves entered the bank by drilling a hole in its wall through an adjacent vacant building. They took away nearly ₹27 lakh cash and jewellery worth several lakhs of rupees after cutting open a safe and some lockers.

Investigators are trying to find out if the same set of thieves, who committed the Mundka bank theft, are involved in this crime.