KARACHI: The South police claimed to have traced down a group of robbers on Wednesday by arresting nine members just after one day after a bank heist in Kharadar area.
The arrested accused disclosed in the initial investigation that some of the bank officials of APNA bank were involved in conspiring with the robbery.
According to the South police, in a bid to trace the accused involved in the bank the robbery in Apna Bank’s Kharadar branch a joint team comprising of the members of SIU and City district police was formed by DIG South Azad Khan. The team was supported and provided with all technical and human resources.
While investigating the case one employee of the bank namely Habib during interrogation in explicit detail disclosed that some of bank officials including female staff were involved in the scam.
After his disclosure the police managed to arrest nine persons including two of the female staff and 3 male staff and have recovered 3 hundred thousand rupees and gold ornaments weighing around 1.75 Kg and 2 pistols were recovered including one snatched from the security guard.
A branch of Apna Micro-finance Bank on Napier Road in Kharadar was looted on Tuesday to what the bank officials had earlier claimed that three armed men had entered a bank and looted over Rs 600,000 cash and gold from a bank while holding the bank staff and a security guard hostage at gunpoint. The robbers had also taken a pistol from a security guard away with them while fleeing.
Kharadar SHO Zafar Iqbal said that a total nine suspects have so far been apprehended, adding that three bank staff of the same bank were also among the arrested suspects who have also confessed to the crime. The suspects arrested included a bank manager Habib Ahmed, assistant cashier Mushtaq Solangi, MCO Saima Sadaqat, Rizwan, Abdul Kareem, Sultan, Naqash, Rozina and Hawa Banu. The officer said that the arrested bank staffers had been involved in stealing gold from a bank and they made a plan for a bank robbery following the fear of their apprehensions due to the forthcoming audit at the bank. The cases against them were registered while further investigation was underway.
Published in Daily Times, August 3nd 2017.
