After heist, Chandigarh banks told to install police alarms

CHANDIGARH - A day after the biggest heist in the city when a showroom was looted of jewellery worth Rs.100 million (Rs.10 crore), the city police Thursday asked all banks to install auto-dialer system at their premises.

The banks have been asked to install the auto-dialer system within 15 days so that the police control rooms (PCRs) can be alerted immediately in case of robberies.

“In case any robbery or dacoity is attempted in any of the branches, the alarm of the auto-dialer system will go off automatically and police will be alerted,” a spokesman of the Chandigarh Administration said here Thursday.

At a meeting chaired by Chandigarh’s Home Secretary Ram Niwas and attended by senior police and bank officials, it was decided that all branches of the banks will be directly under the surveillance of Chandigarh police.

The home secretary also asked banks to install panic buttons in their branches which will be connected with the PCRs and police stations. He said that magnetic sensors should also be installed on all window panes, back doors and vulnerable spots.

The move comes after 10-15 dacoits, some of them in police uniforms, looted gold and diamond jewellery worth nearly Rs.100 million from the Tanishq showroom in the Mani Majra market here early Wednesday after overpowering two guards.

Chandigarh’s Inspector General of Police P.K. Srivastava said the dacoity was the handiwork of professional gangsters and investigations were on. No arrests have been made yet.