MP Bank Heist Accused’s Handler From Nepal, Probe Suggests
All the five accused have been identified, while one of them has been arrested, police said.
Bhopal: The five accused in the April 17 robbery in a branch of Bank of Maharashtra in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh had been handled by an ‘unknown person’ from Nepal, preliminary investigation by the police has suggested.
The five accused had decamped with around 10 kg of gold and a cash of Rs 20 lakh in the broad daylight robbery that lasted barely 20 minutes.
All the five accused have been identified, while one of them has been arrested, police said.
The arrested accused has been identified as Kamalesh Kumar.
Interrogation of the arrested accused has led to disclosure that ‘The five accused barely knew each other and their handler in Nepal used to instruct them before and during the robbery on WhatsApp calls’, police sources said.
Sources said that the robbery was planned a month ago and one of the accused had taken on rent a house in Morba area, around 35 km from district headquarters of Singrauli, around a month ago.
Three accused were staying in the rented house at different points of time and used to meet everyday at the bank branch, which they targeted to loot, to conduct Recce of the area.
Two other accused reached Singrauli just a day before the robbery, sources said.
The other four accused have been identified as Fantoosh alias Nanki who hailed from Nalanda in Bihar, Rajesh Kumar, who hailed from Giridih in Jharkhand, Pankaj Sharma from Singhbhumi in Jharkhand and Chottu, police said.
The native places of Kamalesh Kumar and Chottu are yet to be confirmed, police said.
All the five accused are aged 18-22 years and have criminal backgrounds, source said.
“They were given the ‘assignment’ (robbery in the Singrauli branch of Bank of Maharashtra) just a month before the incident”, sources said.
Probe was still on into the incident, Singrauli district superintendent Manish Khatri said.
