Tens of millions of rupees worth of foreign currency, gold and jewelry have been stolen from the lockers
KARACHI: A day after a woman reported 250 tolas of gold missing from her locker in a bank in Clifton, seven other lockers — said to be containing gold, foreign currency and jewelry worth tens of millions — were discovered to have been looted as well.
According to Superintendent of Police Investigation South, Muhammad Imran Mirza, while investigating the criminal complaint filed by resident Dr Anita Qazi, the police visited the bank located on Zamzama.
While investigating the bank’s secure room, the other lockers were inspected and seven more were found to be broken into, in a manner similar to Qazi’s locker.
Bank sources said tens of millions of rupees worth of foreign currency, gold and jewelry have been stolen from these lockers.
The police said a list of the locker numbers has been prepared. Their owners will be called in to determine their losses, following which more cases will be registered.
Clifton police station’s head of investigations, Inspector Arshad Janjua, said the police will begin taking statements tomorrow to trace the culprits.
The police mentioned previous instances of lockers being broken into within the same bank. SP Imran Mirza said one involved the theft of $100,000 from a locker, a complaint for which was never filed. In the other incident, which occurred this year, gold worth Rs3 million was stolen from a locker, he added.
Station House Officer Clifton, Pir Shabbir Haider, said a year ago there was an incident of arson in the same branch, which was not reported to the police either.
Mirza also revealed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been looking into the irregularities and will be approached for an update in the matter.