Hours after two masked men robbed an unguarded State Bank of India (SBI) at Dahisar killing its helper, the MHB police have cracked the case and arrested the duo. Both the attackers are cousins and decided to rob a bank after watching YouTube videos of bank robberies in order to get rich quickly, said police.
The police which formed eight teams to crack the case managed to locate them with the help of CCTV footages. While scrutinising CCTV footages at Rawal Pada in Dahisar, the police found two suspects entering Kisan Chowl soon after the incident. The police sniffer dog "Jessi" which was also pressed into action came handy in locating them, said the police. One of the attacker had left his slipper behind in the melee and Jessi, a Belgian Malinois, tracked him down, said police.
According to the police, main accused Dharmendra Yadav, 21 is the mastermind who hatched the plot and called his cousin Vikas Yadav, 19 from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh who came 10 days ago to Mumbai. Dharmendra had already procured the pistol from Bihar for ₹40, 000 and once Vikas had arrived they went ahead with their plan.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that they chose the SBI bank at Gurukul society at Dahisar West as their target for several reasons. Firstly, it was close to where they lived. Secondly, unlike a normal SBI branch, it is a small branch with barely 8-10 employees. Thirdly, they knew that it was unguarded for last several days.
As planned the two walked into the bank at 3.27 in the afternoon on Wednesday when the bank was already closed for public and all its employees were busy wrapping up days work. Seeing them entering Sandesh Gomane, 25 contractual employee got up from his chair. However before he could realise anything was amiss, Dharmendra pulled out a pistol and pumped a bullet in his chest.
Gomane, employed with an agency which outsourced his services as a helper to the SBI, hit into his chest from close range and collapsed there itself, he died on the spot said police.
Dharmendra then threw his bag at the cashier, while Vikas went to cashier's table from behind to remove the cash from the drawer and put it in the bag. The entire incident was captured in the bank's CCTV camera. Within two minutes, the duo escaped with the cash of Rs 2.70 lakh.
Their questioning revealed that the two then went back home and, before they could escape, the police nabbed them. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Dharmendra is a vegetable vendor's son. He has cleared his HSC and has been working with a catering service.
"We have recovered cash, a firearm and three live rounds from them. They were produced before the court on Thursday which granted seven days of police custody," said Pravin Padwal, Additional Commissioner of Police, North region.
The police investigation also revealed that Dharmendra had purchased five live rounds. He used one round at the time of buying the weapon for testing it while he pumped the second bullet into Gomane's chest. The duo were arrested on the charges of murder (302) and 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt)
