In a daring robbery, masked men looted a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, escaping with 58 kg of gold and about ₹8 crore in cash.
The incident occurred on Tuesday evening and has left the region stunned. According to News18, the robbers—armed with country-made pistols and disguised in military uniforms—stormed the bank, threatened staff, and stopped them from raising an alarm.
They overpowered the employees, including the manager and cashier, tying them up before carrying out the heist. After securing the loot, the gang fled, abandoning their getaway vehicle later in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. This has triggered a joint manhunt by police from both Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Crowds gathered outside the branch as officials began investigating the crime scene. The scale of the theft has drawn comparisons with another robbery in Vijayapura just months earlier, in June 2025, when a Canara Bank branch lost 59 kg of gold and ₹5.2 lakh in cash.
That earlier case led to the arrest of three suspects, including the bank’s former manager, Vijaykumar Miriyal—believed to be the mastermind—along with ex-employee-turned-contractor Chandrashekhar Nerella and the manager’s aide, Sunil Moka.
The involvement of bank staff in the previous heist has once again raised concerns about insider threats and weak security measures at financial institutions in the district. Investigations into the latest SBI robbery are still ongoing, with police intensifying their search for the culprits.
