Man who broke into east Delhi bank waited for lockdown to end to buy burglary tools

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said the man, accused of decamping with over Rs 50 lakh after breaking into a bank from the adjoining under-construction building in east Delhi's Farsh Bazar area, waited for the lockdown to end to execute his plan.

When the lockdown ended, he bought burglary tools, they said.

The incident took place on Sunday.

According to police, before committing crime, the accused, Hariram, had entered a building in front of the bank and changed the direction of the CCTV camera upwards at 1.56 pm to avoid himself getting recorded.

Police also said he took around six hours for the burglary. The accused entered the building after 2 pm and came out around 8 pm, they said.

The accused had planned the burglary around six months ago when he was called in the bank for renovation work at the strong room. He conducted recce of the place, police said.

The under-construction building was closed from past two years where he earlier used to work. He took the access into the building by removing the previous lock and replaced it with a similar one, police said.

He is a trained construction worker and has worked in the nearby under-construction buildings for last few years.

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

On Sunday around 2.30 pm, he entered the building after changing the direction of the camera on the first floor of another building, which was already focusing towards entry point to the under-construction building.

The accused was carrying multiple blades and all the required items to cut the wall and metallic items. He first cut the wall of the under-construction building at ground floor and entered into the bank premises via server room. Later, he made another hole on the floor and entered the strong room in the basement. He took the money and fled from the spot, police said.

Some of the blade pieces of grinder got broken while he was cutting the walls and found at the spot.

After committing the crime, he went into another building whose keys he had and hid the money in a plastic drum on the terrace. He had the access of the building as he used to clean the car of its owner and also occasionally worked as a guard, police said.

Police said the building was under-construction due to which the locals might not have suspected anything unusual after hearing the noise of the grinder machine.

When Hariram was nabbed, he initially tried to mislead police by saying that someone gave him Rs 1,000 to change the direction of the CCTV camera. However, he later confessed to the crime, police said.