Gold, silver looted from bank

The incident, which took place at night on January 13, came to light only on Wednesday morning as the bank was closed for consecutive days from January 14 to 17. It came in handy for burglars, who used a gas cutter to enter the facility and open three lockers, as the bank officials did not install a proper security system or employ a security guard. 

Branch manager Rekha had informed the police about the theft on Wednesday. Sidharth, Inspector, Mylapore (Crime), said that the bank management had no proper security system laid out even as it remained shut for four days in a row. “The bank premises did not even have a security guard. They had installed a burglar alarm system for the building. As the alarm was not maintained properly it failed to send alert messages to the officials concerned when the intruders struck,” the inspector added. Police suspect that two men should have carried out the theft. 

“The CCTV footage shows a duo entering the bank on Friday night. However, due absence of night vision facilities in the CCTV cameras the images are dark and blur,” Sidharth said and added that the police could not make out much from the visuals. “The lockers were kept on the ground floor of the bank. The burglars used a gas cutter to open one of the window grills on the rear of the building to gain entry. The men then broke open the doors and lockers using the same gas cutter before decamping with the valuables,” he said.   

The owners of the three lockers, who are from Mylapore, are yet to ascertain the loss. One locker had silver articles while the others had both gold, silver articles and other valuables. The intruders would have planned the theft after watching the building for some days or weeks So, they had targeted the bank during the Pongal holidays, the police said. Sniffer dogs were pressed into service and forensics experts lifted fingerprints from the spot. Further investigations are on.