INDIA: Haryana bank heist: Police announce Rs.1 milion reward

Chandigarh (IANS): With no breakthrough in the sensational bank locker room heist through a 125-feet-long tunnel, Haryana Police Tuesday announced a reward of Rs.1 million (Rs.10 lakh) to anyone giving information of those behind it.

“Haryana Director General of Police S.N. Vashisth announced a reward of Rs.10 lakh to the person who would give clues to police about those who dug a tunnel and decamped with cash and jewellery of the lockers at the main branch of the Punjab National Bank in Gohana yesterday (Monday),” a police spokesman said here.

Burglars broke into at least 90 lockers after making a tunnel from an abandoned building near the bank branch in Gohana in Sonipat district, 210 km from here. The tunnel was dug under a street.

The customers said their losses could run into crores of rupees. The locker room had over 360 lockers.

Claiming that they had lost millions in the form of jewellery and cash, angry customers of the bank Tuesday laid siege to the bank branch.

The upset customers, including many women, held a protest outside the bank and said they will not leave till the bank authorities take immediate action against the bank staff and also compensate the customers for their loss.

“We have lost all our hard earned money and valuables. The bank has to compensate us for that,” an agitated woman customer said.

While the bank guard, who was being questioned, said he had not heard any noise inside the bank Sunday night, customers said the authorities had not even installed CCTV cameras in the locker room.