No breakthrough yet in Bokaro SBI heist case

Shashank Shekhar

Bokaro ( Jharkhand) :  Amidst strong protests by the family members of 76 account holders of State Bank of India, Administrative Building branch, Bokaro Steel City, who lost their Gold, Diamond jewellery and cash worth about Rs 15 crore in a heist committed by 7 criminals on December 24, 2017, Bokaro police on December 28, 2017, announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh  to any informer if it helps police crack the case. Bokaro district cops are being desbribed as  ‘inefficient and incompetent’ after the bank heist.

The criminals stole the cash and costly jewellery by cutting the 76 lockers. They cut the connection of CCTVs installed in the bank besides taking away the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) installed in the wahsroom.The movement of few seven criminals have been captured by another CCTV and also the second DVR installed in the bank. Bokaro SP Karthik S on December 28 announced  that if any person gives any clue leading to cracking of the bank burglary case, he will get a reward of Rs 1 lakh and his/her identity will be kept secret.

In the meantime, SBI Branch Manager R K Singh has asked all customers to give list of their precious items which they had kept in their lockers as they can return items of those persons whose lockers were cut down but few items are still lying there as the criminals did not take them away.

Dozens  of customers whose lockers were broken rushed to the bank on December 28 and submitted their details which are being scrutinized by the bank officials. Meanwhile, more than 100 customers out of 476 having lockers in SBI administrative building branch on December 28 asked the bank to close their locker giving back their belongings while  several others applied for new lockers in other banks. This reporter found that most of the account holders having lockers in SBI administrative building branch on December 28 applied for lockers at SBI main branch located at sector IV where few lockers are available.

Bokaro SP  Karthik S told this reporter that investigation is still on and it is suspected the gang involved in the heist is either from Malda (Bengal) or Sahebganj (Jharkhand). Five members of this gang were arrested recently from Chas in Bokaro district.