Ruing the lack of security consciousness among banks, joint commissioner of police (crime) D Sivanandhan said: ``Banks should tighten their security. They should employ young and trained security guards and equip them with proper weapons, instead of giving them unwieldy rifles.''

The security guard who accompanied the MSCB van last week, Baban Jagtap, is a 56-year-old retired army commando. Jagtap fired on the robbers from his .12 bore rifle, but couldn't prevent the robbery.

Cops also detail the previous three robbery cases to point to the banks' lax security measures.

On July 2, four men intercepted a taxi at Oshiwara and robbed a sum of more than Rs 25 lakh belonging to theBank of Baroda. The robbers had used a Maruti.

On July 20, Indira Sahkari Bank, Dadar, was robbed by four men of Rs 20.10 lakh. The robbers came in a Maruti and decamped with cash and the security guard's rifle.

On August 12, four men intercepted a taxi at Powai and, after threatening the cashier of Indian Overseas Bank, took away Rs 9 lakh. The robbers escaped in a waiting Maruti.

In these three incidents, as also in the MSCB case, a Maruti was used as a getaway vehicle by the robbers.

``None of the banks had bothered to send more than one guard. Why should they? After all, their money is insured,'' said an assistant commissioner of police, preferring anonymity. Once police register a complaint, it's the insurance company which has to pay, he added.

The second common thing in all the robberies, police said, is that the robbers received ``inside help.''

``I'm hundred per cent certain that in every bank heist a bank employee has to play Judas, otherwise robbery can never take place,'' said a deputycommissioner of police.

Sivanandan said MSCB used an old Armada, whose collapsible door also didn't function, for transporting half-a-crore rupees. ``They should have used such boxes which had been fitted in the vehicle and which couldn't be carried away,'' he said.

But a senior MSCB official said: ``We have three such jeeps which are used in cash collection and delivery. Still such a thing never happened before.''

The modus operandi of the robbers has more or less remained the same, and as bank officials have said, the robbers were either speaking in South Indian languages or Hindi with a Southern accent. ``We strongly suspect that in the last two robberies, the Nadar gang was involved,'' Sivanandhan said.