Thieves dig 10-feet-long tunnel to bank strongroom, decamp with 1.8 kg gold in Kanpur

Thieves broke open a chest at a bank here and decamped with gold worth Rs 1 crore after entering its strongroom through a 10-feet-long tunnel, police said on Friday. They had dug the tunnel, which was about four-feet wide, from an empty plot adjacent to the State Bank of India's Bhanuti branch, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vijay Dhull said though the thieves entered the strongroom and broke open the gold chest, they failed to prise open the cash chest that had Rs 32 lakh.

Bank officials took hours to provide an estimate of the stolen gold. They claimed that it weighed over 1.8 kg and was worth about Rs 1 crore, Dhull added.

Police and forensic officials who investigated the 'robbery' found the tunnel dug from a vacant plot adjacent to the bank's strongroom and covered by shrubbery, he said.

"It could be an insider's job who executed the crime with the help of expert criminals. We have found some leads, including fingerprints from the strongroom, that might help crack the heist," Dhull told PTI.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the thieves must have done a recce of the area and were familiar with the construction and architecture of the bank as well as the strongroom and the gold chest.

The robbery came to light on Friday morning when bank officials found the gold chest and the strongroom door opened, Commissioner of Police BP Jogdand said.

The bank officials also found the tunnel through which the thieves had entered the strongroom, he added.

Senior police officials, forensic experts and a dog squad reached the bank and launched a probe.

Several police teams headed by senior officials have been formed to solve the heist, Jogdand told PTI.

Bank manager Neeraj Rai told the police that the gold belonged to 29 people who had taken loans against it.