CHENNAI: Monday’s robbery of Rs 14 lakh by an armed gang from an Indian Overseas Bank’s branch in Keelkattalai gives an uneasy sense of déjà vu. Not surprising, because it was only about a month ago that a quartet had similarly decamped with Rs 19.5 lakh from a Bank of Baroda branch located on Rajiv Gandhi Salai in Perungudi. So far, investigation into the first robbery by a special team led by DCP R Sudhakar has not thrown any light on the identity of the suspects.Amid fears that the trail could be growing cold, the robbers have now thrown down the second gauntlet at the police.What strikes the eye immediately in the two cases is the imprint left behind by the robbers, which shows eerie similarities, leading the investigators to strongly suspect the hand of the same gang in both heists. “Everything, from the manner in which the two robbers entered the banks, pushed the staff and customers into a room and robbed the cashier at gunpoint, point to the same modus operandi,” a senior police official told Express.If time and place are anything to go by, both gangs appeared to have chosen to strike around lunchtime on the first working day of the week – Monday – at two bank branches located on bustling main roads, lined with hundreds of shops and houses, probably to escape any attraction.Both banks did not have CCTV cameras, a fact that the managements seemed to have closed their eyes to and something that the robbers seemed to have been fully aware of.Asked about the first case, Additional Commissioner P Thamaraikannan had commented that the quartet spoke in Hindi and held two pistols. “They could even be toy guns, we do not know,” he had pointed out.In the present case too, the five-member gang that decamped with a huge cache of cash conversed in Hindi, another officer told Express. “Two of them held guns and asked the bank employees to ‘Sit down’ in English,” he said. “But among themselves, they spoke in Hindi.”Police suspicions about the weapons seemed to have been confirmed, with a majority of the IOB employees reportedly claiming that they appeared to be toy pistols. “It is 99 per cent confirmed that that they were toy pistols,” the officer said.But what has baffled the police in both cases is the failure of the bank staffers to press the alarm buttons. At the IOB branch, as in Perungudi, there were five alarms. “But it did not occur to any of the employees to press the alarm buttons,” he rued.
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