Punjab National Bank's manager and assistant manager were among the 13 arrested (File)
The manager and assistant manager of Punjab National Bank were among 13 people arrested on Wednesday in connection with jewellery worth lakhs of rupees missing from bank lockers in the Palamu district, a senior police officer said.
Superintendent of Police, Chandan Kumar Sinha said bank manager Gandharv and assistant manager Prasant Kumar of the nationalised bank and 11 other people were arrested for stealing gold jewellery from lockers of customers of the branch in Medininagar.
Addressing a press conference, Mr Sinha said the accused bank officials had broken open altogether nine lockers of bank customers and stolen the jewellery.
The bank officials had committed the crime during the lockdown period from February to August this year, Mr Sinha said, adding that seven goldsmiths and jewellers were among the arrested persons, besides a duplicate key maker.
The duplicate key maker would charge Rs 10,000 for making each duplicate key, the Superintendent of Police said, adding that two other accomplices were reported at large.
During the interrogation, Gandharv told the police that he had read news of a bank locker break-in Uttar Pradesh a few months ago and got inspired by it.
One accused bank official confessed that the stolen gold jewellery was mortgaged in a private bank to procure a loan, the police official added.
The other accused, the assistant manager, told the police that he had lost Rs 40 lakh in the liquor business, and that he had mortgaged the stolen jewellery to local jewellers to repay the loan.
The police have recovered a diary with details of the locker number, jewellery and cash from the accused assistant manager.
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.
Following Dr Sinha's disclosure, other customers with lockers in the bank started checking their lockers and eight of them also found their jewellery missing and informed the police.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)