NEW DELHI, Oct 5: The main accused in the planned Rs 12 crore robbery from the ICICI bank’s vault in Manpada branch in Thane in Maharashtra has been arrested and more than Rs nine crores recovered so far.
The police said the arrest was made from Pune more than two and half months after the robbery during which the 43-year old Altaf Shaikh kept changing his appearances and moved from place to place to deceive the police. With Altaf’s arrest, the police so far have arrested five persons in this connection, including Altaf’s sister Neelofar, and said more arrests were likely in the case. The theft had taken place on July 12.
“Shaikh, a resident of Mumbra, had been working with ICICI Bank as a custodian. As the custodian, he was the caretaker of the bank’s locker keys. He spent a year planning the heist, studying the loopholes in the system, and gathering tools to pull it off,” the official of Manpada police station said.
During the probe, police found that Shaikh planned the entire heist by enlarging the AC duct to pass the cash to the garbage chute and tampering with the CCTV footage, he added. “After deactivating the alarm system and sabotaging the CCTV, Shaikh had opened the bank vault and transferred the cash to the duct and below to the chute. The incident came to light after the bank realised that the security money was missing, as were the DVR of CCTVs, which prompted its personnel to call the inspection team,” the official said.
After the incident, Shaikh fled. He would change his looks and use burqa to hide his identity. Shaikh’s sister Neelofar, who was aware of his movement, hid some cash in her home. She has been booked as co-accused in the case and arrested, police said. Shaikh was arrested in a joint operation by Thane and Navi Mumbai police. Earlier, the police had arrested Neelofar and three others – Abrar Qureshi (33), Ahmed Khan (33) and Anuj Giri (30).
(Manas Dasgupta)
