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Mumbai: Man steals Rs. 12 crores from his own bank, changes his looks, gets caught within months

Police said the man worked at the bank and carefully studied the banks operation and exploited the loopholes to carry out his heist. He used the money to change his looks but was still caught by the police within months. His sister acted as his accomplice as she helped hide part of the stolen money.

Abhijeet Christopher Loreng

Updated Oct 5, 2022, 23:23 IST

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Photo : IANS

Mumbai: Police arrested a man from Pune who is the main accused in the ₹ 12 crore cash theft from ICICI Bank in Thane's Manpada area. The man was arrested after more than two-and-a-half months here on Wednesday.

According to the police they have also managed to recover around ₹ 9 crore from the prime accused, who has been identified as Altaf Shaikh, 43.

With Shaikh's arrest on Monday, the police have so far arrested five accused in the case, including his sister Neelofer. The theft had taken place on July 12, NDTV reported.

Police said Shaikh, a resident of Mumbra, had been working with ICICI Bank as a custodian which means 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.

During the probe, police found that Shaikh had planned the entire heist by enlarging the AC duct to pass the cash to the garbage chute and tampering with the CCTV footage.

"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," police said.

Shaikh not just fled with the cash but he used that money to undergo a change of his looks and used a burqa to hide his identity. Shaikh's sister Neelofer, who was aware of his movement, hid some cash in her home. She has also been booked as co-accused in the case and arrested, police said.

Shaikh was finally arrested from Pune on Monday in a joint operation by Thane and Navi Mumbai police. Earlier, the police had arrested Neelofer and three others - Abrar Qureshi (33), Ahmed Khan (33) and Anuj Giri (30).

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