Man drills hole in wall of bank, steals over Rs 55 lakh; arrested along with accomplice

A 34-year-old man was arrested for allegedly burgling over Rs 55 lakh after breaking into a bank from an adjoining under-construction building in east Delhi’s Farsh Bazar area, police said on Tuesday.

Without knowing about the accused, the bank officials had earlier entrusted him the task of fixing a hole in the wall inside their premises that he had himself drilled for committing the crime, police said.

The accused was wearing a helmet at the time of the burglary to hide his identity, they said.

Police also said another person was arrested who received some amount of the stolen money.

The two accused men have been identified as Hariram and Kalicharan (39), both residents of Vishwas Nagar, they said.

On Monday around 10.15 am, police received information regarding a burglary in a bank in Vishwas Nagar area.

Police inspected the spot and found that a hole was made in a wall of the server room of the bank from the adjacent under-construction building. Another hole in the wall of a strong room in the basement was made and cash worth Rs 55,03,330 was stolen from the vault, a senior police officer said.

During investigation, various teams were formed for collecting information from frequent visitors, guards, contractual staff and any details of people who have entered in the locker room over the last six months, police said.

After checking over 50 CCTVs, one camera installed near an ATM located to another under-construction building was found facing upward. It was noticed that the CCTV was tampered. The man's palm and some portions of his face were captured in the camera for a few microseconds, the officer said.

While working on the lead, it was established that the camera was tampered with from the first floor of the building, police said.

Three prime suspects were apprehended by police who had their presence in the building at the time the direction of the CCTV was already pointed towards the entry point in the under-construction building, they said.

Detailed analysis of CCTV footage revealed that the person was Hariram, who lives nearby in a nearby street, and was known by the caretakers of the building that had the CCTV footage, the officer said.

"Later, Hariram was apprehended. During interrogation, he tried to mislead police by saying that a person gave him Rs 1,000 to divert the direction of the camera, but later confessed to his crime," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said.

Hariram said he was called into the bank for renovation work at the strong room six months ago. During renovation, he conducted a detailed recce of the place and gathered all the information about the cash and possible entry and exit routes, the DCP said.

He further revealed that he had planned for the money heist for the last three months, but could not take it up due to the lockdown. Hariram got access to the under-construction building by removing the previous lock and replaced it with another similar one, Sathiyasundaram said.

As soon as he got an opportunity, he entered inside the under-construction building, made small holes there and another one in the strong room. He further disclosed that he wanted to use the stolen money for gambling activities, police said.

Based on his inputs, cash worth Rs 54,48,730 was recovered from a house in the same area where he was working as a guard and Rs 49,200 seized from co-accused Kalicharan, who Hariram had lost to in gambling. The remaining money was spent by the duo, police said.

A grinder, broken grinder plate, hammer, chisel and helmet were also recovered from Hariram’s possession.

Hariram is a trained construction worker and has worked in nearby under construction buildings over the last few years. He belongs to Madhya Pradesh and lives in the national capital with his wife and two children. Kalicharan has a small business and is also involved in illegal gambling activities, police added.

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