Daijiworld Media Network - Karwar (SP)

Karwar, Oct 13: The plan of five persons to break into Amadalli branch of Karnataka Vikasa Grameena Bank in the taluk and take home a booty running into lacs of rupees failed to materialise. Their cup of woes overflowed when three of them fell into an open well while trying to flee. The incident occurred in the early hours of Monday October 12.

Locals caught hold of the thieves who had planned to strike it rich, and handed them over to the police. Their names have been given as Shekhar Selvaraj, Manikantan Arjun, and Sampat Kumar, all from Tamil Nadu. Two others, Kumar and Selvakumar, succeeded in escaping.

The thieves had entered the bank, located in the first floor of the gram panchayat building at Amadalli by cutting the window rods with gas cutter. They broke down the CCTV and severed siren and telephone connections. When they were trying to break open the bank's locker, Rajan Bhandary, residing in the adjacent house, woke up to the sound that was coming from inside the bank between 12 and 2.30 am, and conveyed information to neighbours.

When a large number of people gathered in front of the bank premises, the thieves developed cold feet and ran out, but three of them directly fell into an open well nearby after jumping a compound wall, it is gathered. They had taken with them a few things they could lay their hands on inside the bank. The other two who fled, boarded the vehicle waiting by the side of highway, and decamped.

The people then conveyed information to the police, lifted the thieves out of the well, and handed them over to the police when they arrived there. The town police, who provided treatment to the thieves at the district hospital here, are investigating. During interrogation, the thieves told the police that five of them had come on pilgrimage to Dharmasthala in a Safari vehicle two days back, and had then visited Goa. During their Goa visit, they saw the said bank, which is located in a secluded spot and planned to burgle it, they confessed.