Bank robbery and theft cases increase 65% in 5 years

Rupee Representational image | File

Banks in India have lost Rs 235.96 crore in the last five years to incidents of burglary, robbery, dacoity and theft. The number has been going up since 2013-14 when 587 such cases were reported, amounting to a loss of Rs 34.346 crore. In 2017-18, 972 cases of theft and burglary were recorded, an increase of 65 per cent, leading to a loss of Rs 44.49 crore.

Last year, that is in 2017-18, the highest number of such cases were reported by Bandhan Bank. The bank that started as a microfinance company has a large presence in rural and semi urban regions and saw 276 incidents of theft, burglary, robbery, etc. In terms of monetary loss, Axis Bank suffered the maximum financial loss at Rs 11.99 lakh.

Bihar accounted for maximum number of such cases. There were 147 incidents in Bihar last year, followed by West Bengal which had 105 cases and Uttar Pradesh with 85 cases.

"RBI has informed that it has advised banks to review and strengthen the security arrangement in their branches and ATMs to deal with instances of robbery, etc. and for dealing with risk perceptions emerging from such incidents.These include coverage of branch/ATM by CCTVs and ensuring adequate training of security staff. In addition, RBI has also been forwarding suggestions for improvement, received from police authorities in this regard to banks for consideration and adoption," said Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla in Parliament.

Two years ago, the Delhi police entered the Limca Book of Records for solving one of the largest cash robbery cases in India. On 27 November 2015, they tracked down the driver of a cash transit van who drove away with over Rs 22.50 crore. 

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