Honnaver: An incident of bank robbery was reported here in KDCC Bank located on National Highway of Karki in Honnaver taluk, 45km from Bhatkal, where the bank was robbed of cash and gold worth around 50 lakhs rupees. The incident took place on the night connecting Wednesday and Thursday.

The robbers fled away with the gold ornaments of the safe deposit, weighing 3.508 kg, the estimated value of which is Rs 47.5 lakhs and also the cash amount of Rs 1.96 lakhs. The thieves entered the bank by cutting away the metal window grill completely. They later broke the lock of locker room and cut open the locker with a cutter.





Speaking to Sahilonline, the locals said that a family used to rent a home next to the bank and had evacuated the house just before two months. Taking the advantage of the situation, the robbers looted the bank.

Uttara Kannada SP Balakrishna who visited Honnavar from Karwar, said that the bank had no security measures of any kind. No security guard, no CCTV cameras and not even an alarm and this became a plus point for the thieves in carrying out their job with ease.

Additional SP Subhash Gudimane, Bhatkal DySP M Narayan, Honnavar CPI Promod Rao and other police officials rush to the bank soon after the incident. Special dog squad from Karwar and finger print experts was brought to investigate the robbery.

When the sniffer dog was left on the scene, it followed the path which crossed the road to a shop situated in front of the bank and started barking.

The police are trying to find the criminals behind the scene with the help of dog squad and the finger print experts, said SP. He further said that the banks are always advised to have proper security and install CCTV cameras, but none was followed by the bank which became victim to the robbery.