The Hindu : Front Page : Rs. 20 lakhs stolen from SBH branch in city

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 23, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Rs. 20 lakhs stolen from SBH branch in city

Staff Reporter

Unidentified youngster's involvement suspected

HYDERABAD: Thieves made off with Rs. 20 lakhs from the cash counters of a bank here at Moosarambagh on Saturday morning even as it was bustling with customers and staff. While the bank staff suspect involvement of an unidentified youngster, who disappeared soon after making vague inquiries, in the heist, the police say they are yet to ascertain as to how he managed to weave past three doors and make away with the cash from the reserve cash counters.

State Bank of Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagar branch at Moosarambagh X Roads works from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Around 10.30 a.m., a lean and fair man in his mid-twenties approached the reception and asked how to deposit cash. "Apparently not satisfied with the replies, he went to cashier Kamalavati and attender Balaraju working at the reserve counters. He called Balaraju and made similar inquiries. When the attender told him he was not familiar with the transaction proceedings, he walked out," the Malakpet police said.

Around 1 p.m., the SBH's Chaitanyapuri branch staff approached the bank's in-charge Chief Manager for adjustment of Rs. 20 lakhs. It was only then that the bank employees realised that Rs. 20 lakhs kept in three reserve counters had vanished.

Internal probe

After conducting internal investigation, bank in-charge Chief Manager Ansari Ahmed Khan called in the Malakpet police. The bank staff took out Rs. 55 lakhs from the chest in the morning. While Rs. 20.20 lakhs were kept in the counter that disbursed a minimum of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1.6 lakhs each were kept in three other counters.

The remaining Rs. 31 lakhs-- Rs. 20 lakhs of Rs. 500 denomination and the remaining amount of Rs. 100 denomination-- were put in the tray in the reserve cash counter supervised by Ms. Kalavathi. The offender did not touch the Rs. 100 bundles kept in the front of the cash tray but took away four bundles of the higher denomination valued at Rs. 20 lakhs, the police explained. The police are probing whether any "attention diversion" gang was behind the theft.

The detectives are comparing the visuals taken by the secret camera of the bank with those of the recent ICICI Bank case in which Rs. 4 lakhs was stolen more or less in similar fashion.

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