Armed gang escapes with gold jewels worth crores from city bank

CHENNAI: A gang of three armed men gained entry into Fed bank, a subsidiary of Federal bank at Arumbakkam on Saturday around 3:30 pm, and escaped with gold jewellery worth several crores of rupees after gagging and tying up staff members and the security guard.

Special teams have been formed to probe the incident and police suspect that the incident might be the handiwork of a former employee. The security guard said he was given a spiked drink. According to sources, the bank manager, Suresh was tied up and the robbers took away the locker key from him before looting the jewellery worth several crores of rupees. The robbers reportedly fled in two-wheelers, before police reached the scene. Since the incident occurred at the NBFC that is located close to Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, one of the arterial roads in the city, security has been tightened at the place. All checkpoints in the city have been alerted, police said. Fed bank is a non-banking financial firm, disbursing gold loans..

Meanwhile, bank customers who thronged outside the bank premises were a worried lot. An engineer, Prabhu who lost his job in the middle east during the pandemic told DT Next that he had pledged 26 sovereigns of gold jewellery for sustaining his family. He had recovered the pledged jewels partially and is back to work in Dubai.

“I came for a holiday only last week. Even today morning, I spoke on phone with the appraiser Suresh,” he said. When a photograph of the suspect was doing rounds in TV channels and shown to the customers, many said they have met him at the bank. Another customer said that the suspect cannot be forgotten, referring to his sleeve tattoo.