Lucknow: Burglars struck in a daring bank robbery Indian Overseas Bank‘s branch in Lucknow’s Chinhat late on Saturday cut the wall, damaged and disarmed the alarm system and emptied 30 lockers containing jewelery worth crores. The thieves, four of whom were caught on the surveillance cameras installed in the bank, stayed in the office for 1.5 to 2 hours.
They were seen carrying a heavy electric cutter.
The full amount of stolen goods has not been estimated, but if bank sources are to be believed, jewelery worth millions of rupees were kept in those lockers.
The thieves entered the locker room by cutting a hole one and a half meters wide in the wall.
The burglary is said to have gone unnoticed for a whole day because the branch was closed on Sunday, but the owner of an adjacent furniture store noticed the hole in the bank wall and alerted the police on Sunday afternoon.
The dog team is investigating the spot along with Chinhat police.
DCP (East) Shashank Singh said information about the theft is being taken from the bank manager. He said there is an empty plot next to the bank in Matiyari area of Chinhat. “Unidentified thieves entered the bank by breaking the wall. They broke open the lockers and stole the contents. Forensic teams and dog teams are investigating. Six teams have been formed,” he said.
Initial investigation showed that four people entered the bank. “There was no alarm in the bank, nor any security guard,” he said.
Bank manager Sandeep Singh said Rs 12 lakh cash kept in the bank’s locker remained untouched.
Three months ago, there was another theft at the ATM installed in the bank. The bank manager had reported this to the police. The police had investigated and closed the case.