Surat: The Surat Crime Branch has made a breakthrough in the case of the Rs 50 lakh robbery at an SBI bank branch in the Varachha area on April 27, with the arrest of two key accused who are members of an interstate gang from Ayodhya and Gonda in Uttar Pradesh.

Police investigations revealed that the entire robbery was allegedly planned by notorious criminal Kundan Bhagat from Beur Central Jail in Bihar, where he is currently lodged.

According to the police, the gang operated in a ‘highly professional’ manner. The accused had allegedly stayed in Surat on rent for nearly two months and conducted reconnaissance of more than 10 banks before executing the robbery. They reportedly used fake Aadhaar cards and forged documents prepared using identities from Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference today, Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot said the gang members did not even know each other’s real names, and each accused was assigned four to five aliases to conceal their identities in case of arrest.

Explaining the timing of the robbery, the Police Commissioner said the gang deliberately chose a period when the police force was heavily occupied with municipal elections. “The accused selected April 27 as they believed police deployment on the ground would be comparatively lower due to the civic elections held on April 26 and vote counting on April 28. Traffic movement in the area was also limited because of ongoing Metro construction work, making escape easier,” he said.

Gehlot further stated that the gang had developed a sophisticated modus operandi to avoid identification. “This is a complete interstate gang. Criminals who came into contact inside jails were sent here for the operation. Interestingly, gang members did not even know each other personally. Every accused used multiple aliases. Fake IDs from Madhya Pradesh were prepared in which only the photographs were genuine, while all other details were fabricated,” he said.

Police also revealed that the accused had entered the bank nearly 45 minutes before the robbery by posing as customers. “They clicked photographs of bank employees and observed seating arrangements. Even those whose phones were switched off pretended to talk on mobile phones while conducting reconnaissance so that nobody would suspect them,” the commissioner added.

The police said the gang intended to loot Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore and had arrived with five large bags. However, the presence of mind shown by a bank employee helped prevent a much bigger loss. The employee allegedly informed the robbers that the locker keys were with the manager, who was not present at the branch at the time. As a result, gold worth nearly Rs 2 crore kept in the vault remained safe.

Police identified the arrested accused as Shubham Thakur and Vikas Singh Rajput. However, only Rs 93,000 has been recovered from them so far.

The Police Commissioner said the alleged mastermind, Kundan Bhagat, was operating from Patna jail using a special application to communicate instructions to gang members. Surat Police has initiated the process to bring him to the city on transit remand for further investigation.

At present, seven teams of Surat Police are conducting raids in different states to trace and arrest five other absconding accused connected to the case. DeshGujarat