Sonepat, November 2
As the Sonepat police piece together the Gohana bank heist puzzle, it has become evident that poor financial health, lack of adult supervision and lure for easy money pushed the accused into crime.

The ingenuity and persistence of the youths who tunnelled their way to the PNB’s locker room is talk of the town with many saying that it was a case of intelligent minds going terribly wrong in the absence of guidance and adequate monetary support.

The four accused — Satish, Rajesh, Balraj and Surender — belong to Katwal village, 13 km from Gohana. While Balraj, Satish and Surender have been arrested, Rajesh is still at large.

Gohana Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajiv Deswal said the accused were not happy with the financial health of their families. The families of at least three of the four accused were landless and had limited resources. The accused told interrogators they wanted to make easy money and bank theft could have brought them huge sums. “This was the reason they became part of the conspiracy,” the officer said. “During inquiries made before the arrests, family members of the accused had expressed their inability to keep the activities of their children under check,” he said.

Unmarried youths were often soft targets for driven individuals, Deswal said. Barring Satish, the three others were single. Satish is married with two children.

Police sources said the three accused were lured into the crime by Mahipal Singh, the mastermind. Mahipal, who owned the house from where the tunnel was dug, was in deep financial straits. He committed suicide by consuming poisonous tablets on October 30. His body was found in a car on the Rohtak-Gohana-Panipat national highway.

Satish, a matriculate, had sold around two acres of family land and had three sisters who were married. His father had died some time ago and lived with his mother.