In yet another bank heist, around Tk 30.8 lakh has been taken away from Sonali Bank's Adamdighi branch in Bogra by digging a 30-feet tunnel from a nearby furniture shop into the vault.

Applying the same technique, a robber stole Tk 16.40 crore from Sonali Bank's main branch in Kishoreganj on January 24 by digging a tunnel from a nearby rented house.

Shamsuddin Sharif, manager of the Adamdighi branch, said the bank was closed on Friday as usual.

But it remained open yesterday on account of the election for women's reserved seats in parliament. However, no transaction was made on the day, he added.

Around 4:30pm yesterday, bank officials found the vault broken and called police.

The manager also said the deposit stood at Tk 32,51,687 at the end of Thursday's transaction. After the theft, Tk 1,72,184 was left in the vault.

Yesterday evening, police detained Ansar members Purnadev Sarkar and Milon Mia, who were in-charge of the bank's security, and Ashraful Islam, owner of the shop Biplob Furniture, and his employee Shahin Mia.

Contacted, Mofazzel Hossain, deputy general manager and spokesman of Sonali Bank, told The Daily Star around 9:00pm yesterday that he was yet to know about the heist.

Pradip Kumar Dutta, managing director of the bank, could not be reached as his cell phone was switched off.

In another incident exposed recently by a top finance ministry official, the state-run bank lost $250,000 (Tk 2

crore) to London-based cybercrooks who allegedly hacked into the bank's security system and transferred the money to an account in Turkey.

The crime was committed in September last year while the bank's corporate branch at Shilpa Bhaban in the capital was transferring the amount to the UK through wires on behalf of its client in Bangladesh.

Also, the bank luckily averted another hacking attempt, as there was no cash in the account from which the hackers tried to steal money.