>Allthefoxes at 13:18, 21 May 2021

2021-05-21T13:18:15Z

New page

{{Short description|Bank robbery in India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2019}}
The '''Chelambra bank robbery''' in the [[Malappuram]] district of [[Kerala]], [[India]] is considered to be one of the biggest and most sensational [[bank robbery|bank robberies]] in the crime history of Kerala.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=28072 |title=Police arrest four in Kerala's largest bank heist |publisher=NewKerala.com}}</ref> In the early hours of 30 December 2007, the robbers made a hole in the floor of the [[Bank of Kerala]] and got away with 80 kilograms of [[gold]] and 5,000,000 [[rupees]], a total value of 80 million [[Indian Rupees]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.insidekerala.com/n/article/MainNews/11774/ |title=Rs.8 crore stolen from gramin bank |publisher=InsiderKerala }}{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== Robbery ==
The bank was in the first floor of a building. The ground floor had a [[restaurant]] that was up for [[Renting|rent]]. The four-member gang rented the restaurant by giving an advance payment of about Rs. 50,000. They shut down the front door and placed a board saying that it was under [[renovation]] and would reopen on 8 January 2008. To make things more convincing, they even bought new [[furniture]] for the restaurant and much construction material for the site.

Those who were watching the scene would have thought that repairs were going on. But they were cracking the first floor open, where the [[strong room]] was kept. They made a hole in the ceiling to the strong room where they took the money from iron safes that they cut open using a gas cutting machine. They took away [[gold]] and [[cash]] kept inside the safe.<ref> [[Malayala Manorama]] ''second headline & inner page news'', 31 December 2007</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20071231/859842.html|title=Bank robbed of crores |publisher=webindia123.com}}</ref>

== Investigations by Kerala Police ==
The [[Kerala Police]] quickly formed a number of special teams. A special team led by [[Malappuram]] [[Police_Superintendent#India|Superintendent of Police ]] [[P. Vijayan]] and Deputy Superintendent K K Ibrahim conducted the investigation under the supervision of K.S.Jangpangi the Additional Director General of Kerala Police. The team consisted of [[Inspector#India|Circle Inspector]]s of Police Vikraman and M.P Mohanachandran, SI Anvar Hussain and other officers from the subordinate ranks . It was a challenging task for Kerala Police to begin investigation as there was no evidence and no leads available for them to proceed with. Like many other bank robberies, it was done at the wee hours of a Sunday, since it is a holiday and it had come to light only on the next day.

However, police made a computer graphic sketch image of the main culprit as illustrated by eyewitnesses and neighbors.
The criminals tried to create an impression of [[Naxalite]] involvement in the robbery by quoting a sentence ''Jai Mao'' (praising naxalism) at the scene of the crime to deviate enquiry.
There were many attempts by the culprits to divert the whole attention of the investigation team to [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]]. According to police officials, the criminals had purposely left one kilogram of looted gold in a hotel room in Hyderabad and made telephone calls from many different cities of India to mislead the investigation.

The police team also monitored all telephone calls in the closest [[cell site|mobile signal towers]] at the location of the crime during the midnight hours of the incident. It was a big task monitoring more than two million calls. The help of various mobile service providers and [[information technology|IT]] professionals was also enlisted for the probe.

And finally, it was the identification of a secret phone number used by the main suspects to communicate between themselves, that became the turning point in the investigation.

=== Arrests ===
The police team finally zeroed in on a house in [[Kozhikode]] where the accused were hiding and arrested four people including Joseph alias Jaison alias Babu, the kingpin of the operation along with three others including a woman and recovered 80% of the stolen gold and money. It is the first recovery in the crime history of Kerala of so much stolen property. The police further said that the remaining items would be traced within days as the accused have already confessed their location.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20080228231306&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Topic=0|title=Chelembra Bank Robbery: Remaining booty to be traced soon|publisher=The New Indian Express|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618005516/http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20080228231306&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Topic=0|archivedate=2008-06-18}}</ref> The official [[arrest]] was formally announced on 28 February 2008 by K S Jangpangi, the additional director general of Kerala police.

It is widely considered to be a credit to Kerala police that they solved the biggest robbery in the state within a short period and with the first recovery of so much stolen property.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/29/stories/2008022954860300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311080300/http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/29/stories/2008022954860300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 March 2008|title=Police leave a mark in crime detection | location=Chennai, India |work=[[The Hindu]]|date=29 February 2008}}</ref>

==Crime inspired by ''Dhoom'' ==
The leader confessed that the crime was inspired by the [[Bollywood]] movie ''[[Dhoom]]''. In the movie also, the robbers made a hole in the ground floor of the bank and got away with the valuables during the new-year event.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1153520 |title=Bollywood scripts Kerala’s bank heist |publisher=DNA}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Portal|Banks}}
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bank robberies]]
[[Category:Crime in Kerala]]
[[Category:2007 crimes in India]]
[[Category:Robberies in India]]

Chelembra bank robbery - Revision history

>Allthefoxes at 13:18, 21 May 2021