Haryana bank heist inspired Navi Mumbai bank robbery

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 12

A gang of thieves who broke into the Bank of Baroda’s branch at Juinagar in Navi Mumbai last month and made off with more than 11 kilograms of gold were inspired by a similar burglary at Punjab National Bank’s branch at Haryana, police said.

Interrogation of ten persons arrested from different parts of the country so far have revealed that they had studied the heist at PNB’s branch at Sonepat, Haryana, in 2014.

Gold and other valuables worth crores of rupees were stolen in that incident, police said.

According to Navi Mumbai police officials, one of the masterminds behind the Navi Mumbai heist, Hajid Ali Mirza Ali Baig, who was out on bail in a different case had heard of the Sonepat heist from other criminals while still in jail.

On his release, Baig studied videos on the bank robbery posted on YouTube and other websites and thought of the plan to carry out a similar heist in Mumbai as well.

“After searching for several months, Baig chose the Bank of Baroda’s branch at Juinagar since a shop was available for rent a few doors away,” a police officer from the Navi Mumbai police said.

Baig’s associate, Gona Bachchan Prasad, rented the store and began digging under the foundation in August this year, according to the officer.

Aware of the mobile phone surveillance practices of the police, the gang had left behind their mobile phones at different locations while they dug under the building’s foundation night after night, police said.

During this time, the gang communicated with each other using Chinese-made walkie talkies.

The gang may have escaped scot-free but for the negligence of one of its members who called up a sex-worker while escaping from the scene of crime, according to a police officer.

Scrutiny of mobile phone dump data from the vicinity of the bank revealed that the call was made to a number in Jalgaon in Maharashtra.

Interrogation of the woman who owned the phone revealed that the caller was her regular customer and
was hiding somewhere outside Mumbai.

Shortly afterwards most of the gang members, including one woman, were arrested and half the stolen booty recovered.

“We are still on the lookout for four persons,” the police official said.