Napier bank heist planned by thieving staffers to avoid audit; nine arrested’

The city police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested nine people involved in Tuesday’s bank robbery and recovering the looted cash and gold from their possession.

Addressing a presser, Special Investigation Unit (SIU) SSP Tariq Razzak Dharejo said the information regarding involvement of the bank’s staff was revealed by one of the employees, Habib, who was taken into custody for interrogation after the robbery.

The heist was being probed by a team formed by the DIG South and headed by Dharejo and SSP City Adeel Chandio. The team’s other members included DSP Kharadar, DSP SIU Usman Asghar, DSP Technical Moeen and Station House Officers (SHOs) of Kharadar and Napier police stations.

The SSP maintained that Habib confessed that he along with his colleagues, Mushtaq Solangi and Saima, had been stealing gold and cash from the bank over a period of time.

However, after the bank’s higher-ups ordered for an audit to be conducted owing to the financial discrepancies, Saima, along with two more colleagues, Hawa and Rozina, planned to the bank heist to hide their theft.

To have their plan executed, Hawa and Rozina spoke to another colleague, Rizwan, who along with his accomplices Abdul Kareem, Sultan and Naqash carried out Tuesday’s robbery.

Dharejo said the suspects were arrested in collaboration with SIU’s technical staff. City police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo lauded the efforts of the law enforcers for the arrests of the suspects involved and congratulated the team.

Three robbers had made away with Rs6,75,000 (Rs0.675 million) in cash and some gold from a private bank's branch on Napier Road on Tuesday in the sixth bank heist reported in the city this year. An FIR was registered at the Napier police station.

Suspicions of the bank’s staff being involved in the heist were expressed by SP City Shehla Qureshi while speaking to The News following the robbery. She said the bank’s manager was present inside the bank before its scheduled opening time and that the guard had gone to change his clothes when the robbers barged in.