Jewellery and cash were stolen from 40 lockers in a daring break-in at the Punjab and Sind Bank branch on Pathankot road. Robbers broke into the strongroom by cutting through the thick iron gate with a gas cutter and opened the lockers the same way. Notes of 1,000rupee denomination were found lying burnt on the floor. The loss is estimated to run into several crores.

Customers started queuing up at the branch on hearing the news. Apart from gold and cash, several NRI customers lost their passports and property papers.

Police found evidence hard to come by as the bank did not have CCTV cameras. The robbers scaled the low boundary wall of the adjacent plots lying vacant.

Police sources said it could be possible that robbers entered the bank on Thursday night, taking advantage of Friday being a holiday. "It would have taken several hours to melt the entire thick plate around the lock system to open the iron gate, and they broke locks of two doors," said ADCP 1 Naresh Dogra.

The break-in came to light when the bank sweeper arrived at 9.45am on Saturday and found the locks of the shutter broken. Bank manager Ashwani Kapoor said that out of the 40 lockers broken, three were empty and one was yet to be allotted.

Major Singh Kler of Nurpur village said his family had kept around 750gm of gold for the the marriage of their daughter, but had lost all of it.

Dr Sandeep Sharma said he had hired the locker just three months back and stored around 5gm gold. Kuldeep Kaur, an NRI from US, said she had kept three passports, green card, 25 tola gold and some cash in the locker.

AJit Singh Rai, an NRI from UK, said that his and his wife's passports were lying in the locker and they were to return to Canada on January 25. Jaspal Singh of Reru village lost 20 tola gold apart from passports of the family.

While 20 passports were lying in the bank, some people also complained that their travel documents were missing or had been damaged.

ADCP Dogra and ADCP (Detective) H S Mander said they were looking at all angles. Cops said they had asked for details of calls made through the nearby mobile towers. The dog squad and fingerprint experts were also pressed into service. (tnn)