Two days after a break-in was reported at the State Bank of India branch in Kallipalayam near Palladam in Tiruppur district, Superintendent of Police Disha Mittal said the number of special teams formed was increased to 11 on Wednesday.
Ms. Mittal said that the heist seemed to have been executed in a “professional” and “systematic” manner. “It was done by someone who has good knowledge of banking, security, and someone who has done this many times [before],” she told The Hindu.
The accused entered the premises on the night of February 22 through a window near the back entrance of the bank. Prior to the heist, the burglars disconnected the burglary alarms, CCTV cameras, telephone lines and even the computer servers, Ms. Mittal said.
So clandestine was their entry into the bank that the police personnel who were on night rounds were unable to detect any suspicious activities on that night, she added. “There was no access for that particular road to the police to the back [of the bank],” she said.
As on Wednesday, the worth of cash stolen was pegged at ₹18.97 lakh. The accused had opened 31 out of 114 lockers, for which the stolen jewellery was estimated to be at least 230 sovereigns, based on inputs from the customers.
K.R. Arul, Inspector at Kamanaickenpalayam police station where the case has been registered, said the estimates are not final as the veracity of the customers’ claims could not be confirmed. “Only 10 [out of the 31 lockers] customers have visited the bank,” he said.
Following a similar break-in attempt in the SBI branch in Kallipalayam in October 2019, the bank had transferred a security guard from its Dharapuram branch. However, the guard was present at the Kallipalayam branch only for a month and was transferred back to the Dharapuram branch, leaving the Kallipalayam branch with no security guards for nearly three months, preliminary police investigations revealed.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Coimbatore range) G. Karthikeyan and Inspector General of Police (West Zone) K. Periaiah visited the bank on Tuesday.
Although it is estimated that at least four persons were involved in the heist, the SP said that it is “too early” to comment on the identities and whereabouts of the accused.
SBI official sources based in Tiruppur told The Hindu that the bank will release a formal statement “within two or three days” after ascertaining the worth of stolen jewellery. However, the mortgaged jewellery was safe inside the bank. Officials from Kallipalayam branch are reaching out to the customers to visit the bank and provide the details on the stolen jewellery, according to the bank sources.
