Sonepat, Octobet 31
One of the baffling aspects of the Gohana bank heist for the police is that none of the accused had a serious police record, and that the suspects, in the age group of 28-32, went about tunneling their way to the PNB lockers in a professional manner using ordinary equipment.

"They worked 3-4 hours every night for over a month with spades and shovels and used cutters to break open the floor. It appears they knew the progress of their work and went about their work without anybody noticing them," said a police officer of the state investigation team probing the heist.

For breaking the floor of the strong room, they used a pressure jack, and finally, they used a sharp iron rod to break open the lockers.

The burglary reported on Monday created such a storm that an investigating officer from the Prime Minister's Office came all the way from Delhi to oversee the police probe. The police have arrested three accused - Surender, Balraj and Satish -- while a fourth one, Rajesh, is absconding. The three belong to the neighbouring Kathwal village. Another key accused, Mahipal Singh, was found dead in his car on the Rohtak-Gohana-Panipat highway. His death has added a fresh twist to the case as his body was found soon after he was first interrogated.

The police version is that Mahipal, the owner of the house from where the raiders dug up an 84-ft-long tunnel to the bank, was too scared of being caught. The police say he had consumed Cellphos tablets. He was cremated today after a post-mortem at the Gohana Civil Hospital. His viscera was sent to a laboratory at Madhuban, Karnal.

The police are yet to ascertain the value of the stolen items whose worth is said to be in lakhs of rupees. Besides recovering huge amount of gold ornaments running into lakhs of rupees. And despite the police claim of a breakthrough, the locker owners continued their sit-in outside the bank on the fifth day today demanding return of their stolen property.

The investigators are still busy digging out the real motive because the accused are common village youths. They used ordinary implements in digging the ground at one of the busiest places in Gohana town. Surender belonged to a family of carpenters and other three -- Balraj, Satish and Rajesh - are from the farming families. Surender is 10+2 with a diploma in Lab Technician and other three are graduates. They all were common friends.

The police said the accused had made an unsuccessful attempt to break the strong room wall in the open area behind the bank. “Surender appears to be the mastermind of the gang that did the rough mapping of the area and persuaded the house owner, Mahipal Singh, to use his house to dig a tunnel,” said a police officer.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Gohana) Rajiv Deswal, who heads the investigation team, told The Tribune that in order to avoid suspicion and match the progress of the digging work with the location of the strong room, the gang frequently visited the bank.