Punjab National Bank at Modinagar, Ghaziabad was robbed over the weekend in Uttar Pradesh. The robbers drilled a hole and entered the strongroom and emptied 30 lockers.
The bank is located on the NH-58 and attached to an abandoned rubber factory. The factory’s office shares a wall with the strongroom of the bank.
The burglars used this to their advantage and entered the factory and drilled a hole through the common wall. The burglars drilled nine inches to enter the other side.
On Monday, at 9:45 A.M., Head cashier, Ajay Kumar and bank staff, Anil Bhargav entered the strongroom and realized there was a burglary and called the police.
S.K. Pancholi, Assistant General Manager at the bank reported, “after opening the steel door, the officials were about to open the next door which is an iron grille like those found in prisons. However, they noticed through the grille that things had been scattered inside the strongroom. They also noticed that several lockers seemed to have been bro ken. They immediately called up the police control room,”
The officials also informed that there was no Security Guard posted at the bank while the bank was on a two day holiday.
Pancholi further added, “The strongroom had been closed on Friday around 6 P.M. The bank was closed for two days after that. A security alarm is also installed inside the strongroom apart from a CCTV camera. Even if the alarm went off, there was no one to hear it since the bank was closed. There was no security guard at the branch. The branch depended on police patrol vehicles for security.”
Out of the 435 lockers, 96 are not in use at present. The robbers managed to break open 30 of them and attempted to break a few more unsuccessfully. A double barreled gun was among the stolen items however the iron chest with the bank’s cash reserves were safe.
The Ghaziabad police arrived at the crime scene along with a forensic team and dog squad. The forensic team picked up a number of fingerprints from the scene.
Anil Bhargav said, “The factory compound has been lying vacant for several years now. It is in a dilapidated condition. For several years, the factory’s workers used to collect their salaries through a window of the bank that opens into the compound but has been sealed now. We are computing losses.”
Customers that had valuables in the bank’s locker were anxious and flooded the bank on Monday for answers. A lot of the customers have said they have lost their entire life savings.
A Modinagar trader, Mukesh Goyal (40) said, “My wife had put all her jewelry into the locker. She had been operating it. She had also put other valuables and important documents into it. We have no idea if we will ever be able to get it back.”
The bank officials have given a complaint and the Modinagar police registered an FIR on Monday.
