Sonali Bank heist

Miscreants made off with more than Tk 164 million from the Sonali Bank in Kishoreganj during the weekend -- leaving behind a tunnel for the police to speculate on the modus operandi of the daring heist.

A case has been filed.

Deputy General Manager of the branch Sheikh Amanullah filed the case on Sunday night accusing unnamed persons, Kishoreganj Model Police Station OC Abdul Malek said.

Police are yet to arrest anyone.

Forty people, including the bank’s manager, several officials and locals, have been interrogated.

Eight policemen were suspended on Sunday for dereliction of duty after the reported heist at Sonali Bank’s principal office in Rattola.

Police say the heist might have taken place on Friday or Saturday, when the bank was closed for weekly holidays.

The Bank’s senior Accounts Officer Mohsinul Haque said he had noticed a tunnel when he entered the bank’s vault around 3pm on Sunday.

Police found the other end of the 15-foot long tunnel inside an abandoned room of a house next to the bank.

A woman, along with two of her daughters, stays in the other room of that house.

During police interrogation she said she was not aware of the heist or someone tunneling through their premises.

Her husband lives in Saudi Arabia.