Tiruvallur bank heist: One employee and two others held, stolen gold recovered

Within 24 hours after 32 kg of gold, worth Rs 8 crore, was stolen from a bank in Tiruvallur, police arrested three persons including an office assistant of the bank and recovered the gold from them.

The accused have been identified as Viswanathan (35) of Sevvapet, who worked as an office assistant in Bank of India branch in Tiruvallur, Jaiganesh (48), also of Sevvapet, who worked in the nearby supermarket, and Gautham (25) of Thanneer Kulam, who is said to have been working as a security guard. 

Police officers said that fingerprint samples collected from the spot helped them crack the case as they matched with fingerprints of the  accused. According to sources, Viswanathan who joined as sweeper in the branch was recently promoted as the office assistant. The bank officials entrusted him the task of keeping the mortgaged jewels inside the lockers. 

Police said that he recently bought a flat in Sevvapet on loan, but was unable to repay it. That is when he decided to loot the bank. Soon after the bank manager and assistant manager found that mortgaged jewels kept in the lockers were missing on Monday, they lodged a complaint with Tiruvallur police. 

A team led by Tiruvallur SP Sibi Chakravarthy inspected the premises and collected fingerprints. As the CCTV cameras were turned to different directions so as to not to capture them and Rs 25 lakh in cash remained untouched, police suspected that a bank employee could have been behind the heist. 

The staff were interrogated and their fingerprints were collected. On suspicion, five of them including Viswanathan were detained for further investigation which went on till late on Tuesday night. 

After three of them were released, police tightened their investigation. Then, Viswanathan confessed looting the bank with duplicate keys along with his friends - Jaiganesh and Gautham. 

The stolen gold jewels were recovered from the duo, who had hidden them at their house. Police said that the trio had planned the heist well in advance and made duplicate keys for the bank main door and as well as the lockers. The seized jewels belong to about 600 bank customers. After the heist, all locks have been changed. The bank remained closed on Tuesday.