Vijayapura: Karnataka Police claimed to have cracked a multi-crore gold and cash robbery case involving Canara Bank in Managuli town here in the state last month.
Officials said that at least three persons have been arrested so far, including a former senior manager of the Canara Bank branch, Vijayakumar Miriyala; an employee of a private company in Hubballi, Chandrashekhar Nerella; and Sunil Moka.
On May 25, 58.97 kg of gold ornaments worth an estimated Rs 53.26 crore and Rs 5,20,450 in cash were robbed from a locker at the Canara Bank in Managuli.
Giving information about the case at a media conference held in Vijayapura city, Superintendent of Police (SP) Lakshman Nimbargi said, “The arrested accused are from Hubballi. The accused had systematically conspired and robbed a huge amount of gold ornaments and cash from the bank. The case has been cracked despite creating several scenarios that diverted the investigation,'” he said
The accused had broken the window of the bank and entered inside, broken the grill of the safe locker room and committed the theft. 2 cars used by the accused for the crime and 10.5 kg of gold ornaments worth an estimated Rs 10 crore 75 lakh and gold bars from which the ornaments were melted have been seized. All the stolen gold had been melted down to make it easier to transport. An operation to find the remaining accused and the stolen items is underway,” the SP said.
“The accused had discussed and planned the robbery for several months. They studied the area where the bank was located and checked the CCTVs. The accused, Vijay Kumar Miriyala, who was working as a bank manager, had given the bank key to the other accused in March and April before his transfer and had fake keys made. He also tested and checked whether those keys worked or not,” he said.
“Vijay Kumar, who was the manager, had waited until he was transferred to commit the theft so that he would not have any problems. He had planned to commit the robbery on the fourth day after the new manager came, that is, on May 23-24. Accordingly, the CCTV footage of him running around there on May 23 was seen. On May 23, on the day of the RCB-Hyderabad IPL match, if RCB won, the fans would burst firecrackers and celebrate, and the accused had planned to enter the bank at that time. But they abandoned it because RCB lost. So they decided to commit the robbery on May 24. They diverted the CCTV and cut the high-mast light cable,” the SP Nimbargi explained.