Prime accused in Rs 12 cr heist from Thane bank held in Pune after over 2 months

Police have arrested the main accused involved in the Rs 12 crore cash theft from ICICI Bank in Thanes Manpada area from Pune after more than twoandahalf months an official said on WednesdayThe police have also recovered around Rs nine crore from the prime accused identified as Altaf Shaikh 43 he saidWith Shaikhs 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 12Shaikh a resident of Mumbra had been working with ICICI Bank as a custodian As the custodian he was the caretaker of the banks locker keys He spent a year planning the heist studying the loopholes in the system and gathering tools to pull it off the official of Manpada police station saidDuring the probe police found that Shaikh planned the entire heist by enlarging the AC duct to pass the cash to the garbage chute and tampering with the CCTV footage he addedAlso read Thane Four held for housebreaking thefts items worth Rs 817 lakh recoveredAfter 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 the official saidAfter the incident Shaikh went absconding He would change his looks and use burqa to hide his identity Shaikhs sister Neelofer who was aware of his movement hid some cash in her home She has been booked as coaccused in the case and arrested police saidShaikh was finally arrested from Pune on Monday The police managed to recover around Rs nine crore out of Rs 1220 crore stolen from the bank and the remaining amount would be recovered soon he saidShaikh was nabbed 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 30More persons are likely to be arrested in the case and further investigation is underway the official saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever