Police suspect inside job after Rs 55 lakh is stolen from Jamshedpur’s LIC building

The robbery case came to light on Wednesday when LIC officials noticed the absence of a large amount of cash from the second- and third-floor lockers at the LIC building in the Bistupur area.

East Singhbhum City Superintendent of Police (SP) Kumar Shivashish told The Indian Express that upon receiving information from the office at around 2 pm, police immediately sent a team to the spot.

According to the SP, the branch manager and other officials expressed certainty that they had closed the locker at around 7 pm a day earlier, on the occasion of the Sarhul festival. However, the next day, they said they found that the cash was missing and informed police.

Police said that given the lack of forced entry and the familiarity with office operations that was evident in the robbery, it is likely that it was undertaken at least with the help of someone on the inside.

“After our investigation, we found no signs of vandalism in the office or evidence of a break-in. In fact, the locker was opened using a key. Whether it was a duplicate key or not is under investigation,” the SP said.

When police tried to use the CCTV cameras to identify the culprits, branch officials said they could not access the footage and called in engineers. However, upon further inspection, it was found that the CCTV system had been tampered with and the DVR was either stolen or disabled, making it impossible to retrieve past recordings.

“The biggest hint is that the suspect had inside knowledge about the cash not being moved from the locker to the bank in the last four days. Only someone familiar with the office’s operations and about the cash could have executed the robbery. The amount was more than Rs 55 lakh,” Shivashish said.

Police are reviewing CCTV footage from nearby cameras with the help of a technical team and intelligence inputs. SP Shivashish said they are actively working on the case, have received some leads, and expect to arrest the perpetrators soon.