Cops claim progress in bank locker heist
Law enforcers yesterday claimed that they had made headway in the probe into the heist at the Dhanmondi Branch of BRAC Bank.
However, they could neither arrest any suspect nor seize any stolen valuables as of yesterday.
Although the investigators suspect that someone of the bank or any locker renter might have been involved in the heist, they did not detain anybody for interrogation.
Several teams of Rapid Action Battalion, Criminal Investigation Department, Detective Branch and police launched drives in and outside the capital in vain.
“Such a planned heist is not possible without the help of people having enough information about the lockers and the room,” Sub-inspector Abu Bakar Siddique of Mohammadpur Police Station, also investigation officer of the case, told The Daily Star adding that it is not easy to locate the locker room.
He claimed that they had tracked down two cell phone numbers used by the robbers.
"The robbers are professional and have expertise in entering such a place and breaking lockers,” the IO said.
He said they took over a month to accomplish their mission and invested about Tk 1 to 1.5 lakh.
The robbers paid Tk 70,000 as rent for the rooms at Hotel Nidmahal housed on the upper floor of the bank.
“Nobody is beyond suspicion," said Shibly Noman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Mohammadpur Police Station.
The robbers tunnelled into the bank's locker room cutting through the ceiling sometime between Thursday night and Saturday night and made off with gold ornaments and other valuables, primarily estimated at several crore of taka.
Meanwhile, the value of the looted gold ornaments and other valuables could not be determined as of yesterday as many of the locker renters are yet to assess the quantity of gold ornaments they kept in the lockers.
Bursting into anger yesterday, affected locker renters blamed the bank authorities for not ensuring enough security at the bank branch.
Golam Azam, an affected renter, said he kept the valuables in the locker after the bank authorities had assured him of having proper security system with CCTV and an effective alarm system. But they did not set up those.
The affected locker renters yesterday held a press conference at the National Press Club demanding immediate compensation from the bank.
BANK TO COMPENSATE
Meanwhile, the BRAC Bank authorities yesterday gave assurance that they would compensate the affected customers if the law enforcers fail to recover the looted gold ornaments and other valuables within the next 90 days.
The bank authorities yesterday sent letters to all the affected customers to inform them about it. They also requested the locker renters to submit the estimated value of the looted gold ornaments and other valuables.
Abedur Rahman Sikder, head of marketing and corporate affairs of BRAC Bank Ltd, said "If the booties are recovered, the police not the bank authorities will handover those to the clients.”
He also said if the law-enforcers fail to recover those, the bank authorities will give compensations.
Replying to a query, he said, "Since we have no document about the gold and valuables kept in the lockers, police will justify the claims. We hope that the customers will not make false claims."
BB MEETING
Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday morning held a meeting to discuss the issue.
The BB also sent a letter to the chief executive of BRAC Bank asking him to provide it with an explanation.
Sources said, the BB also decided to examine the security measures taken for lockers and ATM booths of all the banks.
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