₹1.75-cr valuables missing from six more lockers

KANPUR: Six more customers of Central Bank of India (Karachi Khana branch) here reported that their valuables worth Rs 1.75 crore were missing from their lockers, which they checked after information about theft of Rs 80 lakh jewellery from three other lockers over the past two months.

“As of now, nine such cases have come to fore – five of them in the last 48 hours. Some of the bank employees have been called for questioning. We are probing into the case and there will be a breakthrough,” said Veer Pal, SHO (Pheelkhana).

The total value of valuables that went missing from the bank lockers had exceeded Rs 2.5 crore, as per the estimates given by customers to the police.

As many as 36 lockers were opened on Tuesday with the help of experts from a private lock company and four customers said their jewellery was missing.

Pankaj Gupta, a grocery wholesaler, who was having difficulty opening the locker with his keys, said the value of his missing jewellery was Rs 35 lakh. “The jewellery was with the family for the last three generations. Now, nothing is left,” he said.

Vaibhav Maheshwari of Cantonment said his jewellery worth Rs 25 lakh was not in the locker while Meena Yadav of Lal Bangla said the jewellery she had kept in the locker was worth Rs 80 lakh.

Nirmala Tahilyani, who fainted in the bank after seeing her empty locker, said the worth of her jewellery was nearly Rs 35 lakh.

Another customer, Meena Yadav, said: “Only a silver anklet was left in my locker. All the other valuables were taken away. The keys were also not working and the experts had to open the locker.”

Mahendra Kumar Savita, who opened his locker on Wednesday, told police that one gold set was missing from his locker. Another customer, Kapil Sharma, claimed that his entire locker was emptied. Both of them did not reveal the estimated cost of their missing jewellery to the police.

AK Batham, an expert from the private lock company, said he was sent to assist the bank in opening the lockers. “I only opened those lockers the bank asked me to open,” he said.

The bank, however, for the first time admitted foul play and a team from Lucknow arrived to initiate departmental inquiry into the case.

Field general manager SK Gupta arrived in the city and assured customers, saying this was an issue related to the bank’s credibility.