22 lockers broken into in Sangli district cooperative bank branch, gold and silver stolen

Kolhapur: As many as 22 lockers at the Zare branch of the Sangli District Central Cooperative Bank were broken into, and gold and silver ornaments kept in the safety lockers were stolen, the police said.The incident came to the notice of bank officials when the establishment opened on Thursday morning. The police said the process to identify the customers to whom the safe deposit lockers belonged is ongoing."The thieves entered the locker room by cutting the bars of a window in front of it using a gas cutter. Then the locks were also broken using the gas cutter. We have identified three customers so far and, as per their complaint, we have registered a case. The thieves stole jewellery items. They cut the alarm system wire, and stole the digital video recorder of the CCTV cameras. The area behind the locker room is uninhabited," said inspector Vinay Bahir, of the Atpadi police station.As per the FIR lodged, valuables worth almost Rs 9.4 lakh have been stolen from the lockers of the three identified customers. Assessment of items from other stolen lockers will be done once the customers are identified.The District Central Cooperative bank officials said that, as per their primary estimates, around 7kg gold and 20kg silver have been stolen, though the cash in the bank's locker was intact. For reference, the current market value of 1 kg of gold is roughly 1.25 crore, and 1kg of silver sells for approximately Rs 2.2 lakh.Senior bank officials visited the branch after they learned about the robbery and claimed it was the largest heist so far in any of the branches of the District Central Cooperative bank.The dog squad was deployed, and the police said the sniffer dog showed some route that the thieves might have taken. "We have four to five teams on the ground tracing the thieves and how they carried out the theft. We suspect the involvement of an interstate gang after investigating the initial clues," said Bahir.