RAIPUR: In a daring heist, some unidentified robbers broke open 13 lockers of State Bank of India located on city outskirts and made away with Rs 10 lakh on Sunday night. A similar robbery of Rs 63 lakh has been reported at an office of a private company in Janjgir Champa district. The burglars not only damaged furniture and CCTV cameras of bank located in Mandhar but also emptied locker of Vidhan Sabha principal secretary Devendra Verma in the bank.
The incident came to light when the Mandhar branch of SBI reopened on Monday and its staff found the bank in complete disarray.
According to the preliminary investigations, police said that it seems that the robbers have used gas-cutter to break open 13 lockers and flee with cash and ornaments worth Rs 10 lakh.
However, the actual amount looted from the lockers is yet to be ascertained.
Police said that the robbers also broke the furniture, scattered the documents and CCTV cameras with intention to not leave any evidence for identification.
According to Raipur ASP Vijay Agrawal, teams of police officials were pressed into service and both forensic team and dog squad were rushed to the spot and the probe was underway.
Officials said that it seems that the accused were more than four in number and might have done a recce before targeting the bank.
Though it was not yet clear if there was any guard present when the incident took place, several bank account holders were fuming over the lack of proper security arrangements and alleged that there was no guard present at the bank when the incident took place.
Principal secretary Devendra Verma told reporters that jewellery of his wife and cash kept in the SBI locker is missing and he wasn’t much hopeful that he would get back his valuables.
He owned two lockers in the bank of which one was broke open by the burglars. According to the bank officials, there were 56 lockers in the bank and burglars also broke the chest of the bank and might have decamped with a bigger amount than what was calculated in the initial probe.
Police suspect the accused to be experts in robbery and they seem to have taken sufficient time in robbery while the gang may also belong to neighbouring states.
