Thieves break into empty lockers

VARAPPUZHA: An attempt to loot the Koonammavu branch of Bank of India on Wednesday night failed, after thieves opened two lockers and found both empty.According to Aluva CI S Jayakrishnan, the thieves managed to remove the iron grill of the rear-wall window of the building. Once inside, they destroyed all CCTV cameras. They might have used gloves during the operation. The thieves made a hole on the wall of the strong room using iron implements. They broke open two lockers in the strong room which were empty.The bank staff noticed the theft attempt when they reported for duty on Thursday morning. The manager immediately alerted the police. Aluva DySP R Salim, CIs S Jayakrishnan (Aluva) and George Joseph (Vadakkekkara), Varapuzha SI Jossy and Addl SI Mohanan rushed to the scene.The bank manager, after preliminary inspection, informed that they have not lost any valuables. However, the hirers of both the lockers were summoned. They too told the officers that they had lost nothing from the lockers, since they were empty. One of the hirers had withdrawn Rs 1.5 lakh and 100 sovereigns of gold from his locker that afternoon.Blurry images of two thieves could be recovered from CCTV clippings. The police launched an investigation into the incident and registered a case for house-breaking, trespass and theft from dwelling under IPC 457, 461 and 380. Scientific assistants and fingerprint experts gathered evidence from the scene. A dog squad from Tripunithura AR Camp was summoned to assist the investigation.