From Patna jail, watched by NIA and multiple state police forces, Bihar criminal chases his fascination for gold
Bhagat linked to robberies and gunrunning; operations extending from Nagaland to Gujarat
Kundan Bhagat, 29, was held by Bihar Police last year for a gold robbery in Dehradun in 2023. Around 1 pm on April 27, seven men on three motorcycles rode up to the State Bank of India (SBI) branch on Surat’s Varachha Road. They snatched the mobile phones of the six employees and seven customers in the bank, and herded them into a corner room. The criminals put a gun to the head of bank in-charge Kiran Bhoge and threatened to blow his face off. “Vault room ki chabhi de. Nahin toh moonh mein goli maar doonga.”
They could not get the key — it was with the branch manager who wasn’t around at the time. So the robbers left with about Rs 50 lakh in cash that they could lay their hands on. The Surat Crime Branch tracked two of them, Shubham Thakur (24) and Vikram Singh Rajput (30), to Gonda in UP, and produced them in court on May 7. The probe quickly zeroed in on the alleged mastermind: Kundan Kumar alias Kundan Bhagat, 29, a gangster who has been lodged in Patna’s Beur Jail for the past six months. Police and investigators say Kundan is linked to cases of alleged extortion, robbery and gunrunning, with operations extending from Nagaland to Gujarat. Before the Surat bank robbery, the Bihar Police had at least five cases against him, and he had been charged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a terrorism probe. He is also a master of puppets who allegedly runs a successful crime syndicate from jail, an ability that puts him in India’s hall of criminal infamy.
Kundan’s obsession, officers on the Surat probe team said, is precious metals, gems and jewellery — a fascination that makes his character literally true to his name, which means fine gold, and also refers to a technique of jewellery design. He is the prime suspect in the 2023 robbery of gold worth Rs 14 crore from a jewellery showroom in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and was arrested by Bihar Police in 2025 with a part of the alleged loot. He targeted Surat, the economic capital of Gujarat, because he was aware of the flourishing diamond business in the city, officers said. And he likely knew that SBI’s Varachha branch is the second-largest approver of gold loans in Surat, and probably expected to find its vaults loaded.
On Friday, a Gujarat Police team submitted a production warrant issued by a Surat court to the superintendent of Beur Jail seeking Kundan’s custody in connection with the April 27 heist. They expected to get his custody after court formalities in Patna on Monday. “Kundan Bhagat is a notorious and hardcore criminal with many cases against him. The Bihar Police are well aware of his activities. With the help of Bihar Police, we’ll bring him to Surat,” Varachha Police Inspector A R Vala said.
Jitendra Kumar, superintendent of Adarsh Central Jail, Beur, said: “Kundan Bhagat has been with us for the last several months and is presently in a high-security cell. We have submitted the production warrant documents brought by the Surat Police to the local court and are awaiting the order. Once we get permission from the court, we will hand over the custody of Kundan Bhagat to Surat Police.”
Vala said Kundan’s interrogation is expected to lead police to the other members of the gang that carried out the bank robbery. “Kundan is the main conspirator, and he had hired various criminals to commit the crime. Five accused in the robbery are still at large,” Vala said.
On May 8, Surat Police had taken Shubham Thakur and Vikram Rajput, the two men arrested in Gonda, to Kanyasi village near Kim town north of Surat city, where the three bikes allegedly used in the robbery were abandoned. Weapons used in the crime were also allegedly hidden there and, according to police, Thakur had taken out a loaded pistol from under a stone and fired a round at police.
While no policemen were injured, officers said, Surat Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner of Police K I Modi retaliated with this service revolver, hitting Thakur in the leg. Kundan, the son of a marginal farmer from Bishambharpur village of Muzaffarpur district, was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of Bihar Police on November 16, 2025, in connection with cases including the 2023 Dehradun gold jewellery robbery and an NIA case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Arms Act.
He has been lodged in Beur Jail since November 18 last year. Kundan was reportedly inducted into the world of crime in 2019 by the Chhotu Rana-Ashutosh Rana gang based in North Bihar. He was allegedly associated with the Subodh gang, which has been involved in several inter-state gold robberies and smuggling operations, including the Rs 14-crore Dehradun heist. “Starting out with a small criminal gang, Kundan Bhagat graduated to an arms racket. His alleged association with the Subodh gang put him on the radar of police across states as well as the NIA,” a senior police officer in Bihar said.
On April 15 this year, the NIA chargesheeted Kundan in a 2024 Bihar case relating to the smuggling of illegal weapons. The NIA said that he was actively engaged in the illegal procurement and smuggling of prohibited bore weapons from Nagaland, which were supplied to Maoists and criminals in Bihar. The case originated with the seizure of an AK-47 rifle along with a lens by Bihar Police. Kundan was the sixth accused to be chargesheeted in the case.
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