In a brazen overnight robbery, thieves targeted a cooperative bank in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district, making off with a significant haul of gold and silver ornaments from safety deposit lockers. The incident, which police are calling one of the largest heists in the bank's history, has sent shockwaves through the local community.
The Discovery and the Break-In
Bank officials at the Zare branch of the Sangli District Central Cooperative Bank discovered the theft when they opened for business on Thursday morning. Upon entering the locker room, they found a scene of systematic burglary. According to Inspector Vinay Bahir of the Atpadi police station, the perpetrators gained entry by cutting through the bars of a window facing the locker room using a gas cutter.
The thieves then used the same gas cutter to break open the individual locker locks. In a move to cover their tracks, they also severed the alarm system's wires and stole the digital video recorder (DVR) of the CCTV cameras, effectively erasing video evidence. Police noted that the area behind the locker room is uninhabited, which likely provided the gang with cover for their operation.
Staggering Valuables Stolen
The scale of the theft is substantial. Based on the First Information Report (FIR) filed, valuables worth nearly Rs 9.4 lakh have been confirmed stolen from just three identified customers so far. However, the total loss is expected to be much higher.
Senior bank officials, who visited the branch after learning of the robbery, provided preliminary estimates indicating that approximately 7 kilograms of gold and 20 kilograms of silver were stolen from the 22 broken-into lockers. For context, at current market rates where 1 kg of gold is valued at roughly Rs 1.25 crore and 1 kg of silver at about Rs 2.2 lakh, the estimated value of the stolen precious metals runs into several crores of rupees. Notably, all cash kept in the bank's lockers was left untouched.
Police Investigation and Suspicions
The Atpadi police have launched a major investigation into the high-value theft. Sniffer dogs were deployed at the crime scene, and officers reported that the dogs indicated a possible route taken by the culprits. Inspector Bahir stated that four to five police teams are actively working on the ground to trace the thieves and unravel the method of the theft.
"We suspect the involvement of an interstate gang after investigating the initial clues," said Inspector Bahir. The modus operandi, involving gas cutters and the targeted theft of the DVR, points to a professional operation. The process of identifying the remaining customers whose lockers were vandalized is ongoing, and a full assessment of the stolen items will follow.
This robbery has been flagged by bank authorities as the largest such incident to have occurred across any branch of the District Central Cooperative Bank, highlighting a serious security breach.
