Purnia locker theft: Rs 2 crore worth jewellery stolen

PATNA: Three days after unidentified criminals committed a theft by cutting open 26 lockers with a gas cutter in the UCO Bank branch in Purnia, police on Thursday said the locker holders lost valuables worth around Rs 2 crore.
The theft took place in the bank’s branch located on the premises of a women’s college in Madhuban locality of Purnia town. The crime came to light when bank manager Sumit Kumar along with a colleague went to the bank for some work on Sunday even though it was a holiday.The bank’s last working day before Sunday was Friday.
Police said the thieves entered the bank premises after unscrewing the iron grill of a dilapidated window. They took away the hard drive of the CCTV cameras, but left behind the gas cutting set.
Police estimated the worth of the heisted valuables on the basis of the information provided by locker holders, all residents of the town. The valuables were mostly jewellery pieces.
Three police teams are learned to have been sent to Bokaro and Sahebganj in Jharkhand and Malda in West Bengal to track the thieves involved in the incident. However, Purnia SP Vishal Sharma refused to confirm the locations where the teams have been sent.
“It seems the gang had conducted a recce before committing the crime,” the SP said and added six of the targeted lockers did not have any valuable.
The SP said police were awaiting reports of fingerprint experts. “We have shared inputs with police of neighbouring states where similar incidents took place in recent months,” he said.
A state police HQ officer said similar incidents took place in Bokaro and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and a districts of West Bengal. A gang belonging to Sahebganj and another to Malda are prime suspects in the Purnia case, he said.