A total of 13 individuals were arrested in connection with the audacious robbery at the Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) branch in Samastipur on May 7, police said on Monday. The special task force’s bank and jewellery cell, operating under police headquarters, recovered 3 kg of gold ornaments, two country-made pistols, six live cartridges, and one car from the accused.
Investigation revealed insider involvement: Abhishek Gupta, a bank-deputed gold-checker, and Ramesh Jha, a loan agent, were arrested for deliberately inflating gold valuations and passing critical information to the robbers.
Seven unknown criminals had stolen Rs 15 lakh in cash and 9.75 kg of gold ornaments from the branch. A case was registered under Section 310(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 27 of the Arms Act at Town police station.
Using CCTV footage, police identified suspects Deepak Kumar (Samastipur) and Karamveer Kumar (Vaishali) within 24 hours. Ravish Kumar, who funded the crime, was caught while fleeing Ghaziabad. Karamveer was later apprehended in Munger. He and Ravish had earlier planned a jewellery shop robbery in Samastipur on February 24.
Following information from the arrests, Bittu Kumar was caught near Bidupur with 600 grams of gold ornaments. Three others — Deepak, Anuradha Devi, and Fulparri Devi — were arrested with 447 grams of gold jewellery. Akhilesh Rai and his wife Savita Devi were arrested in Ghaziabad, leading to the capture of Harish Chandra Rai with 1.6 kg of gold ornaments.
All the accused have extensive criminal records including dacoity, arms violations, and robberies across Bihar and some in West Bengal.
