Bangladesh Bank has asked all the scheduled commercial banks to take all the necessary steps for ensuring security of their respective bank’s vaults in the wake of a recent incident where miscreants broke in and looted around Tk16.4 crore from a branch of Sonali Bank Limited in Kishoreganj Sadar.

Expressing grave concern over not following the safety directives already issued by Bangladesh Bank (BB), the central bank yesterday released a circular with a fresh directive to further strengthen the security as well as safety measures of the vaults where the cash is deposited. 

Most of the banks do not follow the instruction on safety of money that is deposited at bank’s vault, despite the time to time instruction of the central bank. As a result, money looting incident is taking place simply by destroying the security fence, said BB circular.

According to the circular, all the commercial banks have been asked to establish more commanding and updated security measures in ensuring structural, technical and insurance security.

Under the structural security measures, banks are to set up security-tested doors with steel wall around the vault space of the banks. The floors and roofs of around the vaults also have to be certified by an engineer, said the circular.

As part of technical security measure, there must be an alarming system round the clock along with a closed-circuit television camera at the vaults. There should be an uninterrupted connectivity between the bank’s central information system and the vault’s security system. Automated fire extinguishers also must be set up into the vaults, read the circular.

As far as insurance coverage is concerned, the insurance on the money deposited at the vaults has to be covered completely. 

Miscreants broke in and looted around Tk16.4 crore from a branch of Sonali Bank Limited in Kishoreganj Sadar, authorities noticed on Sunday afternoon.

The miscreants dug a passageway into the vault of the bank located on Isha Kha road of the town.

The passageway was found to have been dug from an adjacent building.

However, how the incident took place was confusing since a police barrack was located in the basement of the branch for security reasons.

Some 17 people including 12 officials of Sonali Bank in Kishoreganj, were interrogated in the Sadar police station on Monday in connection with Tk16.4 crore looting incident.

Police held 12 bank officials including Branch Manager Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan and five others people earlier in the day. Deputy General Manager Sheikh Amanuallah filed a case against some unidentified people in this connection with Sadar police station on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the authorities of Bangladesh Bank and Sonali Bank formed separate investigation committees to investigate into the incident where Tk16.4 crore was looted from a vault of a Sonali Bank Limited branch in Kishoreganj.

Eight policemen were suspended following the incident. These policemen were deployed in the barrack located in the basement of the branch to maintain the security of the vault. 

News:Dhaka Tribune/28-Jan-2014