Employee among 5 held for theft at bank in Ujjain; Rs 5.08 cr gold, cash recovered

Ujjain (MP), Sep 3 (PTI) Police have arrested a contractual employee of SBI and his four associates for allegedly stealing jewellery and cash valued at crores of rupees from a branch of the bank in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain, officials said on Wednesday.

The police have recovered gold of Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 lakh in cash from the accused, they said.

The incident took place on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday at the Mahananda Nagar branch of State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest public sector lender, the officials said without specifying the exact theft amount.

Later, while examining CCTV footage of the area, the police found two thieves jumped over a wall, went to an upper floor by stairs, opened the locks and entered the bank, a police official said.

It was also ascertained through the CCTV footage that the thieves opened the bank's locker and took out the cash and gold kept in it.

Since neither the lock nor safe was broken, the police suspected the collusion by a bank employee and an investigation was conducted on this basis, the official said.

The stolen gold belonged to people who had taken loan from the bank by mortgaging their jewellery, according to police.

"A total of five accused have been arrested on the basis of CCTV footage and other information. They include the bank's contractual employee, Jai Bhavsar, who along with his four other accomplices carried out the theft," Superintendent of Police Pradeep Sharma told reporters late Tuesday night.

All of them have been arrested and gold valued at Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 lakh in cash have been recovered from them, he said.

The bank manager and two officials have been suspended for negligence, Sharma said.

He also announced a cash reward of Rs 30,000 for the police team that cracked the case. PTI MAS GK