Thiruvananthapuram, June 20: Police in Kerala are looking for a gang that looted over Rs30 million (Dh2.13 million) from a bank, and have spread their investigations into neighbouring Karnataka as well.
Gold and cash worth over Rs30 million were stolen on Thursday morning from a branch of the North Malabar Gramin Bank.
The incident has raised concerns considering that there has been a series of such thefts in different banks in the state in recent times.
Police say the gang broke the window of the bank building on the first floor sometime just after midnight, and then proceeded to the locker room.
The gold stolen from the lockers were ornaments kept by the bank’s customers as collateral for loans. Bank officials yesterday assured depositors that the assets of the bank were insured and that there was no need for customers to fear monetary loss.
Interestingly, the ornaments in one shelf of the bank were reportedly untouched by the robbers while another shelf was broken open and its contents robbed.
Police expressed surprise at the apparent ease with which the gang accomplished its mission and made good their escape before police reached the spot around 2am on Thursday morning.
The robbery has highlighted the need for better security at the state’s bank branches, particularly because of the series of such incidents in recent months. At the Periyar branch of the bank where the heist took place, there was no night security posted.
-Agencies