Tk 2 crore heist

Criminals made away with Tk 1.95 crore from a Brac Bank branch in Joypurhat town by breaking open a vault sometime on Friday night.

The incident took place about seven months after criminals looted Tk 16.40 crore from a Sonali Bank branch in Kishoreganj by digging a tunnel into the vault room of the state-run bank.

In the latest heist, criminals broke into two-storey Shahjahan Mansion, which houses the Brac bank branch on the first floor, by making a hole in the wall that the building shares with a mall, Mousumi Market.

Md Hasanuzzaman, an official of the bank's SME section that remains open also on Saturdays, discovered it as he entered the branch office at Bank Para in Joypurhat town around 10:00am yesterday.

He saw the vault broken and the money gone. A 10 by 17 inch opening was made through the wall, Biman Karmaker, assistant superintendent of police of Joypurhat Sadar Circle, told this correspondent, quoting bank officials.

The bank branch shares its wall with the offices of Modern Homeo Complex, Central Insurance Company Ltd and a so-called NGO -- Poor Development. The criminals breached the wall from the NGO office, according to police.

A person named Abdur Rahman Molla from Dhaka and four others rented the office room some two weeks ago, saying they would run an NGO from there, said Biman Karmaker.

All of them, prime suspects for the robbery, are on the run.

Police said they detained bank's security guards Faruque Hossain and Helal Uddin for quizzing, and that they were trying to track down the prime suspects. 

Mohammad Mithun, son of Mousumi Market's owner Nayek Ali, said he didn't have details of the persons who rented the office for the so-called NGO. His father, now in Saudi Arabia to perform hajj, might know more about them.

 Zeeshan Kingshuk Huq, head of communication and service quality of Brac Bank, told The Daily Star that the bank filed a case with Joypurhat Police Station yesterday evening in connection with the robbery.

An organised gang of criminals looted the money. “It seems they were well equipped to break the vault,” said Zeeshan.

The bank's guard was there, but the criminals broke into the branch from the adjacent building.

Zeeshan said the bank's clients and depositors in Joypurhat need not worry. “Our clients are protected and the branch will remain open to provide banking services to clients.”

Talking to this newspaper, Mahfuzur Rahman, executive director and spokesman of Bangladesh Bank, hoped law enforcers would be able to arrest the culprits and recover the stolen money soon.

Replying to a query on security measures, he said the central bank had asked all banks to beef up security after the Sonali Bank heist in Kishoreganj in January.

On March 7, criminals stole Tk 30.8 lakh from Sonali Bank's Adamdighi branch in Bogra by digging a 30-feet tunnel into the vault from a nearby furniture shop.