Unauthorized Robbery - Col Ajit Datta
May 4, 2021
The plot to rob the bank had been in the police constable’s mind in an embryonic stage ever since he had seen a movie on a television channel. Many permutations and combinations kept nagging his thoughts, robbing him of many a good night’s sleep till he finally gathered enough courage and confidence to execute the plan. It was a simple plan that required the help of the local insurgents. In a dingy cafe near the bank, he contacted the town sergeant of the insurgent group to spin out the plan of robbery. It was to be a joint operation on Christmas day, the very next day, when the presence of the bank-guarding contingent would be minimal. As planned, he managed to convince his section commander to detail his team of conspirators to be on duty within the bank premises at the crucial hours.
And, down in the plains, about 200 km far off, the next night was a long and frosty night, especially after midnight mass in the newly constructed Baptist church on the hilltop. It overlooked the perched, wide river running down from the hills. The tall officer, now on leave, drove down the winding road, crossed the iron bridge and entered the rhododendron- bordered driveway to the newly constructed double storied house with many balconies. He unlatched the front door, turned to the car to help her pick up the sleepy children. At that precise moment he could hear the telephone ringing in the bedroom but let it ring off automatically. He was wondering who it could be at three in the morning when the telephone rang again. It was his deputy from the district headquarters, informing him of a robbery in the bank. The culprits made a smooth getaway in a Willy jeep after police guards were overpowered and, losses were yet to be ascertained as the bank staff was out of station on Christmas holidays stretching over ten days. He had recently taken over the new assignment in the district, reputed to be stronghold of the most prominent insurgent group in the state.
He was so furious that he ordered the immediate suspension of the guard, and tasked the deputy to select a good replacement. Evidently it was an insurgent supported operation which could affect the recently agreed upon ceasefire in the volatile region.
All concerned were contacted to seal off roads and detail search parties to sensitive localities and by the time his sources contacted the underground to confirm the robbery as their operation, it was almost daybreak. The only silver lining was that though their cadre was involved, it was a local operation by an underground team without the clearance from their controllers.
The Christmas holidays were long, almost up to the New Year’s Day and it was very difficult to contact the right people so early in the morning. As he was almost 200 km away from the scene of crime, his presence there was a must. Somehow the local army battalion commander was contacted and informed about the robbery. They were already aware of the incident and search parties were out. Their brigadier was to land shortly on the helipad to coordinate the search operations. The army was taking the robbery, as a serious violation of ceasefire and full-fledged operations would be launched in no time unless the loot was returned. The army was very concerned as a huge arsenal could be created with the looted amount, resulting in more bloodshed. He was also advised to contact the coordinator of the insurgent group’s ceasefire monitoring cell for the blatant violation of ceasefire by their cadre and their reactions thereafter. The coordinator confirmed that it was an underground operation and he would join him to the district headquarters to defuse the situation arising out of the robbery by their cadre. They left in the Maruti Gypsy in the morning and reached the district headquarters in the evening as the twilight descended. They went via the capital primarily to apprise the commissioner about the robbery and its impact on the fragile ceasefire. But he was out of station and instead they met the Special Secretary to the Chief Minister. He promised to contact the bank people, as none was locally available.
They went straight to the red and white RCC building where the deputy minister of the underground was staying in the district headquarters, an elderly gentleman with a dignified bearing who was part of the famous long march to China in the initial stages of insurgency.
He sat down on the polished floor at the old man’s feet and to his surprise, held on to his knees."I will not leave your feet till you save my honour. Great humiliation has fallen on my family and my clan, especially on me by the robbery committed by your boys. That cash was under my responsibilities and no way can I wish it away. If the cash looted is not recovered I’ll kill myself in front of your feet, please help me."
The old man just smiled, chided him for sitting on the floor in spite of being such a senior officer and lifted him up gently from the floor to sit next to him on the white couch.
The old man added, "It was an unfortunate mistake committed out of greed. It was an unauthorized operation. The culprits have been identified and traced. Even if rupees five crore were taken, all would be returned. Now go in peace and find out how much was looted fromthe bank. I think your police guards were responsible for corrupting our boys and inviting them to loot the bank. We will punish our defaulters after returning the looted cash."
The bank building, a triple storied concrete one with small, cabin shops on the ground floor facing the main square and the bank staff’s accommodation on the top floor, had a staircase connecting all the floors on the right corner of the building. It was a sad looking decaying building, might have seen good days 15 to 20 years earlier. Two iron-grilled gates controlled the access to the banking hall on the first floor. He could see that the new guard had already replaced the earlier one as ordered by him telephonically, wondering whether the earlier lot were arrested or suspended for dereliction of duty. The strong room where the cash used tobe stored had a big hole where the ventilation system used to be. It was evident that afterwidening the ventilation hole with a sledgehammer, the culprits entered the strong room.
The underground minister had already hinted at the involvement of the policemen in the bank robbery, and individual interrogation of the police guard immediately brought out the truth.
Suddenly a black humour descended on him. It was a strange situation where the insurgents were looking for and chasing the police for the recovery of the looted amount from the bank.
When the robbery was reconstructed, it was revealed that on Christmas day six armed insurgents gained entry into the bank with the help of three police constables who were on duty from 7 to 11 p.m. The underground team was contacted and invited for the robbery a day earlier by one of the police constables who had a penchant for designer clothes and high stake gambling.
The police guard was of 19 strong and had recently replaced a CRPF guard. But only eight were present on that day as others were on French leave to be with their families for Christmas. The off duty sleeping guards in the guard room were quickly neutralized and with the help of these three police guards, the insurgents widened the ventilation hole by breaking away the edges with sledgehammer. Before decamping with the cash in a jeep, the insurgents left one sackful of cash for their police friends. One of the constables, the ring leader, deposited this cash with his mother staying close to the bank, returned to fire a few rounds to depict resistance from their side and tied themselves up to prove their innocence.
But the planner missed out on one small vital detail – the existing ceasefire agreement and
the consequential impact of the robbery. But none had any clue as to how much was stolen until the joint custodians of the cash returned. The local battalion of the security force intervened when their night patrols heard the stray shots and immediately smelt a rat. The brigadier flew in next morning and pressurized the local hierarchy of the underground group to maintain status quo as far as the ceasefire was concerned. The looted amount must be returned. Even the local public was getting concerned and insisted on return of the loot.
After the interrogation of the three constables and along with the police search party, he went personally to the house of the mother of the constable for the recovery of the looted cash. He immediately became suspicious when he found her most reluctant to leave her bed as he called on her, unlike other places where the old ladies traditionally fawned over the guests.
She would just not leave her bed as she made casual conversation to locate the looted cash.He had to resort to a simple trick to get her away from the bed – a glass of water for the thirsty guest. As she left the bed, a quick check revealed stacks of currency notes under the old, cotton mattress. A thorough search revealed more bundles of currency notes hidden in the pigsty, some even under the feeding tray. More than 50 lakh were recovered from that house. The same night, the area commander of the underground group also recovered almost 85 lakh from their cadre from a nearby village where a few had taken shelter for the night.
They were on the run from their own organization. It was a unique sight when the sackful of currency notes were brought in to the DC’s office for counting, verification and safe custody, within the presence of the town elders. As the bank remained closed, the recovered cash was handed over to the local battalion of the security forces for want of confidence in the guardian of law-and-order. But exact losses were still unknown.
The bank officers arrived next morning from the plains and were immediately whisked away to the bank premises. But there was a hitch, as they couldn’t get hold of the accountant from his home town – only the cash officer could be contacted and fetched over. The vault could not be opened until and unless both custodians used their keys to the vault. The cash officer had dropped a bombshell when he mentioned that the strong room contained approximately
10 crore at the close of business just before the onset of the long holidays and one particular almirah had only 500 rupee notes, totalling about 7 crore. As the suspense became unbearable, it was decided by the district authorities to unseal the hole in the strong room to allow a rough estimate of losses as the delay was affecting recovery operations. The widened hole was just enough to permit a frail man inside. The cash officer, a burly Sikh gentleman, was invited to have a look and if feasible enter the strong room through the hole to carry out an assessment. But his turban got stuck in the small hole, so it was removed much to the amusement of the onlookers. There was an audible sigh of relief as he reported that the almirah containing 500 rupee notes appeared unbroken and losses could be maximum two crore or so. The only way the strong room could be opened now was with the duplicate keys.
Then the hunt began for the location of the duplicate keys, apparently it was kept safely under round-the-clock surveillance of the local police. This time, it was the turn of the officerin-charge to be missing from the scene. By the time he was contacted at his hometown andbrought over to the bank, it was well past midnight. There was a dramatic incident enroutewhen the jeep fetching the officer hit a local student leader, resulting in a near riot condition in that village. The officer along with the jeep driver was released temporarily from police custody on intervention at the highest level. His presence was essential to locate the duplicate keys to the bank.
The strong room probably had never seen such an august gathering within its confined space – right from the DC, SP, cash officer of the bank and also the local area commander of the insurgent group. The area commander was under posting to their general headquarters and his relief had already joined to take over the responsibilities. He was convinced that there was a conspiracy by the establishment to undermine the credibility of the underground organization and he wanted to be sure that losses were exact and not inflated. He was given a crash course on cash management and was convinced that verification of cash ledgers would bring out the losses. It took time but eventually all were convinced that losses were of two crore, as asserted earlier by the cash officer. It was just sheer luck that the almirah containing 500 rupee notes was not touched, otherwise, the losses could have jumped to 7 crore, enough to purchase more than a thousand AK-47 rifles from the arms bazaar of Chittagong. There is a lot of glib talk about "choking off funds" to the insurgent outfits but very little thought is given to safeguard the main source in a hostile environment.
Accountability, as usual, is nonexistent. Within an interval of a few days the underground group, successfully chased and recovered almost 1.5 crore but refused to hand over their culprits. The strength of the group can be assessed by the recovery and return of the looted amount in no time. The ceasefire still stands and the bank is still operating in the district headquarters, albeit with a paramilitary guard. But such joint ventures between the local police and an insurgent group both in robbing the bank as well as in recovering the looted amount are rare indeed in the annals of crimes against banks the world over.