Ghaziabad: In a strange incident, robbers drilled about two-foot hole in the wall of Punjab National Bank’s Modinagar branch, entered the strong room and emptied about crores rupees from 30 lockers.
Nobody really knows the exact value of what they stole, but it could easily run into crores. The housebreaker entered this office, and cut the hole in the common wall, which is about nine inches thick, at a height just above where the lockers end.
The housebreak was discovered around 9:45 am on Monday when a bank staffer, Anil Bhargav, and the head cashier, Ajay Kumar, opened the strongroom which has two security doors.
Assistant general manager S K Pancholi told media person, “After opening the steel door, they noticed through the grille things had been scattered inside the strong room. Several lockers seemed to have been broken.”
After that they immediately called up the police control room, bank officials said, “there has been no security guard at the bank. The strong room had been closed on Friday around 6 pm. The bank was closed for two days after that.”
Pancholi added, “a security alarm is also installed inside the strongroom apart from a CCTV camera even if the alarm went off, there was no one to hear it since the bank was closed, there was no security guard at the branch, the branch depended on police patrol vehicles for security.”
The robbers managed to open only 30 lockers, but it was evident they had tried to break a few more. There are 435 lockers in the strongroom, of which 96 are not in use at present. The burglars also stole a double-barrelled gun kept inside a steel cabinet inside the strongroom.
Senior officials of Ghaziabad police reached the bank after receiving the call, along with a forensic team and a dog squad. Fingerprints have been lifted from the scene.The bank operates out of a rented building.
The customers holding account in the bank throng the bank throughout Monday. As their valuables worth crores are allegedly missing from the lockers. Many complained that their entire savings have vanished.
An FIR was registered in Modinagar police station on Monday on the basis of a complaint registered by bank officials.
