Surat: In a daring daylight heist, six armed robbers looted around ₹50 lakh from a branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) on Lambe Hanuman Road in the Varachha area on Monday afternoon, after holding bank staff and customers hostage at gunpoint. The entire incident unfolded within 13 minutes, raising serious concerns over urban banking security.

According to police, the robbers executed the crime with precision, targeting both the bank’s cash reserves and a cash delivery van. Of the total loot, approximately ₹12 lakh was taken from the bank locker, while ₹38 lakh was stolen from a cash consignment brought in by CMS Security personnel.

The robbery began around 1:13 pm when one of the accused entered the bank posing as a customer seeking to open a current account. He interacted with the service manager and gathered information about the bank’s functioning. At around 1:54 pm, five more accomplices entered the premises armed with pistols and immediately took control of the situation.

The assailants held five to seven customers and staff hostage, threatening them at gunpoint. The service manager was assaulted and forced to hand over the locker key, while the cashier was coerced into opening the cash locker. During the ordeal, the security guard was beaten, and a customer who attempted to resist was threatened with multiple firearms.

At the same time, a CMS Security cash van arrived at the bank carrying ₹40 lakh. The robbers swiftly intercepted the personnel and looted ₹38 lakh from the consignment, leaving ₹2 lakh behind. Notably, two armed guards accompanying the van failed to intervene, and their role is now under police scrutiny.

After the robbery, the accused fled on three motorcycles—reportedly Pulsar, Apache, and Splendor—bearing registration numbers from different districts, which police suspect are fake. To evade tracking, the robbers also snatched mobile phones from those present and discarded them at various locations, including Shyamdham, Sarthana, and Khattar, indicating an escape route via the highway.

Investigators are analysing CCTV footage, fingerprints, and linguistic clues to identify the suspects. Officials noted that the robbers spoke in dialects associated with western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, prompting teams to be deployed in those regions. Fingerprints collected from the scene are being cross-checked using police databases, including e-Gujkop.

Police have also launched searches in Velanja and surrounding rural areas based on intelligence inputs suggesting the suspects may be hiding there.

The brazen daylight robbery has triggered concerns over security preparedness in Surat’s banking sector, with authorities now reviewing protocols to prevent such incidents in the future. DeshGujarat