Warrangal, May 13: Thieves struck at an Andhra Bank branch in Gudur mandal headquarters last night and made away with 9 kg gold ornaments worth Rs 1.36 crore.
Two special teams were constituted to nab the burglars’ gang. Meanwhile, police are fuming at bank officials that the heist took place due to their negligence.
Police maintained that the officials didn’t have a strong room, throwing Reserve Bank of India guidelines to the wind. The officials have been using a room with three Godrej safes as a strong room by fixing grills to it.
“How can the officials store gold ornaments worth crores of rupees in the bank without a proper security system in place,’’ the police maintained. “Leave alone a strong room, the bank doesn’t have basic security arrangements like an alarm facility and CCTV cameras.
The burglars walked away with the booty by entering the bank from its deserted rear side by removing the window grills. They dislodged the grills of the room beside the manager’s chamber and took away three sacks of ornaments by breaking the top of one of the safes. They didn’t touch a safe storing Rs 10 lakh currency.
The bank officials didn’t take measures to get the window on the rear side closed despite the fact that thieves made a vain bid to break the window five years ago.
Bank officials came to know of the heist at 10:30 a.m today when they reported for duty. Set up 35 years ago, the bank has an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore.
Speaking to Express, district superintendent of police Shahnawaz Qasim fumed at the bank officials for their negligence.
They had been served notices twice before for poor security arrangements.
“They didn’t heed to our warnings,’’ the SP said.
Observing that even small shop owners try their best in securing their premises from thieves, he lamented that the bank which houses crores of rupees didn’t ensure proper security arrangements. The police are mulling booking cases against officials for being negligent by violating RBI guidelines.
“We have taken the heist as a challenge and will soon nab the offenders,’’ the SP said. Police suspect that those who knew of the bank’s transactions might be behind it.
Officials tightlipped
Meanwhile, none of the bank officials are opening up. The bank Deputy general manager Bhushan Reddy visited the branch and enquired about the incident.
Though, he didn’t respond to the criticism of poor security arrangements, he said an inquiry would be conducted into the incident.
–Agencies