Pune Crime: While guards were sleeping, thieves ran off with a 100-kg safe

The masked duo carried the heavy vault, which had Rs 12 lakh in cash, down two floors in the lift, and then dragged it out in front of the sleeping guards; cops suspect an inside job

One would assume that a 100-kg electronic safe and two security guards would be enough of a precaution against burglaries. Vishal Nahar — who runs Eiffel Developers out of an office on Fergusson College Road — certainly did. But on Saturday night, two robbers broke into his office in Mantri Complex and made off with Rs 12.15 in cash, still intact in the sumo-sized safe.

Illustration/Amit Bandre

To add insult to the injury, CCTV footage has revealed that the safe, too heavy to be carried out from the second-floor office, was taken to the ground floor in the lift, and then dragged out right in front of the security guards who slept through the burglary.

According to the FIR filed by an employee, Veer Bharti Kaul (51), the office was shut from 7.15 pm on Saturday evening, till 7.30 am on Sunday morning, when a few employees entered to find the accounts department’s shutter, door lock and latch had been broken. When they found the safe missing, they alerted the police immediately.

The police think the burglary may have been an insider job, since the robbers knew exactly where the safe was located. The suspects even wore masks to avoid being captured on the CCTV cameras fitted near the safe, in the accounts room.

The CCTV footage did not provide any leads on the identity of the thieves because of the darkness and their masks. The police said the duo threw the rods, and other materials they used to break in, outside the office. They may have parked their vehicles on FC Road and fled from the scene with the safe, a senior police official added.

The suspects have been charged under section 457 (lurking, house-trespass or house-breaking by night) and 380 (Theft in dwelling house, etc) of the Indian Penal Code at the Shivajinagar police station.

Rs 12 lakh The amount of cash that was kept inside the sumo-size safe

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