Chelembra bank robbery
The Chelambra bank robbery in the
Robbery
The bank was in the first floor of a building. The ground floor had a restaurant that was up for rent. The four-member gang rented the restaurant by giving an advance payment of about Rs. 50,000. They shut down the front door and placed a board saying that it was under renovation and would reopen on 8 January 2008. To make things more convincing, they even bought new furniture for the restaurant and much construction material for the site. They also covered up the windows with newspapers to avoid being suspicious.
Those who were watching the scene would have thought that repairs were going on. But they were cracking the first floor open, where the
Investigations by Kerala Police
The
However, police made a computer graphic sketch image of the main culprit as illustrated by eyewitnesses and neighbors. The criminals tried to create an impression of
The police team also monitored all telephone calls in the closest mobile signal towers at the location of the crime during the midnight hours of the incident. It was a big task monitoring more than two million calls. The help of various mobile service providers and IT professionals was also enlisted for the probe.
And finally, it was the identification of a secret phone number used by the main suspects to communicate between themselves, that became the turning point in the investigation.
Arrests
The police team finally zeroed in on a house in Kozhikode where the accused were hiding and arrested four people including Joseph alias Jaison alias Babu, the kingpin of the operation along with three others including a woman and recovered 80% of the stolen gold and money. It is the first recovery in the crime history of Kerala of so much stolen property. The police further said that the remaining items would be traced within days as the accused have already confessed their location.[5] The official arrest was formally announced on 28 February 2008 by K S Jangpangi, the additional director general of Kerala police.
It is widely considered to be a credit to Kerala police that they solved the biggest robbery in the state within a short period and with the first recovery of so much stolen property.[6]
Crime inspired by Dhoom
The leader confessed that the crime was inspired by the
Book and film adaptation
The robbery has been written in detail by true crime bestselling author Anirban Bhattacharyya in the book India's Money Heist: The Chelembra Bank Robbery which he co-wrote with IG of Kerala, P. Vijayan, published by Penguin Random House in 2022. The book was launched by Mohanlal at Lulu International Shopping Mall, Kochi.[8] In August 2022, it was reported that the book's film adaptation right have been sold, with Mohanlal essaying the role of the officer P. Vijayan, while Fahadh Faasil would play criminal Babu.[9]
References
- ^ "Police arrest four in Kerala's largest bank heist". NewKerala.com.
- ^ "Rs.8 crore stolen from gramin bank". InsiderKerala.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Malayala Manorama second headline & inner page news, 31 December 2007
- ^ "Bank robbed of crores". webindia123.com. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
- ^ "Chelembra Bank Robbery: Remaining booty to be traced soon". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008.
- ^ "Police leave a mark in crime detection". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 29 February 2008. Archived from the original on 11 March 2008.
- ^ "Bollywood scripts Kerala's bank heist". DNA.
- ^ "A decade long chase of a robbery story". The Hindu.
- ^ "movie on indian money heist mohanlal to plat ig vijayan, fahadh faasil as heist's mastermind". Keralakamudi.