Gang of 29 held in bank theft case

Disclosing this at a media conference at his office on Friday, police commissioner Sunil Agarwal gave the names of the accused as follows- Jayabalu, 66 years, Arul Egastiyal, 34, V  Kumar, 38, Vinodkumar, 28, Suresh, 22, Murali, 29, V Armugam, 38, Senthil, 30, Mani, 49, Santosh, 27, S Sennthilkumar, 43, Nagu, 50, Allauddin, 48, Kumar B, 48, A Shekar, 34, Pandurangan 65, Karthik P, 30, M Thilak, 30, Palani Swamy, 45, Vinay Murthy, 27, A  Murugan, 40, Velu Murugan, 28, Soundaryaraj, 52, Haridas S, 60, S Nagaraj, 50, S Raja, 31, Rajanikanth, 49 and Balaji, 54. Interestingly, the police commissioner said most of the accused are from Ramjinagar in Trichy in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu state.

Explaining about the modus operandi deployed by perpetrators in the case, the commissioner with the help of CCTV footage said, one elderly person in the gang approached the person at the cash counter showing interest in making a deposit.

As was the plan, the man told the cashier that he wasn’t able to hear properly and asked the latter to come out. Unaware of the fate to befall, the staffer came out of the cabin without locking the counter. It was at that time, in just 18 seconds, another man with a coir bag in hand made away with the huge amount.

While 17 of the gang members were inside the bank keeping other staff engaged in enquiry, remaining were outside keeping a vigil. They entered the bank around 10.32 am and made away with cash at 10.35 am, according to the footage of CCTV- 3 in the bank.
“ Barring footage, particular design of the bag and a design on the back of a t-shirt worn by an accused, the investigators had no other clues to follow upon,” the commissioner said.

However, of the stolen amount, the police could recover only Rs 16.75 lakh and 18 cellphones from them. The gang had deposited Rs 4.66 lakh in different bank accounts to enable their relatives reap the benefit. The remaining amount was spent on liquor and food.

Assistant general manager of the bank Manjunath Bhat said, henceforth the bank will make ID card mandatory for those who want to utilise lockers service.

He said, barring those having lockers, no other customers were allowed inside the work area, from where the perpetrators had succeeded in stealing the cash. DG and IG  Neelam Achut Rao has announced a reward of Rs one lakh to the team of police led by ACP Shashikumar, consisting of Inspectors Jaykumar, Sunderraj and Nemiraj among others for their feat in nabbing the culprits.

Some interesting facts

Another bank in Mysore
It was the same gang that had run away with Rs five lakh cash from City Union Bank in Mysore in December last. With their arrest, that case is also solved.

 A mix of young and old
The gang is a mix of young and old. Eldest among the accused is 66-year-old and youngest is aged 22.Though Tamil is their mother tongue, they knew Hindi as they were a gang on the move and struck at various places.

India map, a tool
Do you know what was the major tool in their kitty? It was India map, having information in Tamil. The commissioner said as they were always on move, the map helped them know the topography of the area among others. Likewise they had struck a bank in Mathunga in New Delhi and 10 banks in Hyderabad alone.

Human rights activist
One among the accused is a human rights activist. Rajnikanth is a member of National Human RIghts Protection Centre, Tamil Nadu, the commissioner said showing
the ID card.The office-bearers of the centre will also be questioned, he said.

Record of all
What makes the case further interesting is, the accused had neatly maintained the record of deposits (challans) and also the amount spent.

Moreover, all the deposits were below Rs 49,500. The commissioner jocularly remarked, though it’s a fact ‘deposits from Rs 50,000 and above requires ID proof like PAN card.