Manager, assistant manager arrested for jewellery missing from bank locker

He had mortgaged the stolen jewellery to local jewellers to repay the loan.Police has recovered a diary having details of the locker number, jewellery and cash from Kumar.Earlier, an Agriculture Scientist of Birsa Agriculture University, Dr Ashok Sinha had filed an FIR on September 15, stating that his jewellery worth Rs 21 lakh is missing from his locker of United Bank of India, now merged with Punjab National bank.

The manager and assistant manager of a nationalized bank were among 13 people arrested on Wednesday in connection with jewelry worth lakhs of rupees missing from bank lockers in Palamu district, a senior police officer said.

Superintendent of Police, Chandan Kumar Sinha said the bank manager Gandharv and assistant manager Prasant Kumar of Punjab National Bank, and 11 other people were arrested for stealing gold jewelry from the lockers of the customers of the branch in Medininagar.

Addressing a press conference here, Sinha said the accused bank officials had broken open altogether nine lockers of bank customers and stolen the jewelry.

The bank officials had committed the crime during the lockdown period (February to August this year), Sinha said, adding that seven goldsmiths and jewelers were among the arrested persons, besides a duplicate key maker.

The duplicate key maker used to charge Rs 10,000 for making each duplicate key, the SP said, adding that two other accomplices were reported at large.

In course of interrogation, Gandharv told police that he had read news of bank locker breaking in Uttar Pradesh a few months ago and got inspired by it.

The accused bank official confessed that the stolen gold jewelry was mortgaged in a private bank to procure a loan, the SP added.

The assistant manager told police that he had lost Rs 40 lakh in the liquor business. He had mortgaged the stolen jewelry to local jewelers to repay the loan.

Police have recovered a diary having details of the locker number, jewelry, and cash from Kumar.

Earlier, an Agriculture Scientist of Birsa Agriculture University, Dr. Ashok Sinha had filed an FIR on September 15, stating that his jewelry worth Rs 21 lakh is missing from his locker of United Bank of India, now merged with Punjab National bank. Following Sinha's disclosure, other customers having lockers in the bank started checking their lockers and eight of them also found their jewelry missing and informed the police.