Apart from recording statements of the two watchmen - who claimed that they were rendered immobile and held hostage at the point of swords by the masked culprits - the police have taken statements of the bank officials but none could throw a light on the incident.

The bank has a minimum holding capacity of deposits worth Rs 25 lakh but at the time of the incident, it had a collective holding of deposits worth Rs 51 lakh in the strong room safe (chest). Bank authorities told the police that Saturday being a half-day working, they could not find sufficient time to remit the day's cash deposits to the Reserve Bank of India.

Talking to The Indian Express, a senior police officer, closely linked with the probe, observed that more than adacoity, the incident could be termed as a straight-forward case of burglary attempt.

For, the two watchmen may have claimed that they were tied down and held hostage by the culprits but the police are taking this with a pinch of salt. This, said the officer, was not to suggest that the two had anything to do with the Punjabi-Hindi speaking masked culprits.

There is every likelihood that the two watchmen were fast asleep while the gangsters went about with their task of cutting the locks on the front door shutters, on the wooden door inside and a portion of the steel sheet to the left of the strong room door, with the help of a gas cutter. The watchmen's claims may have came out of fear of losing their jobs, the officer added.

Investigators have reasons to feel so as the officer pointed out that there was little evidence like a scar or an impression on the limbs of the two watchmen, suggesting that they were tied with a rope.

Secondly, the `burglary' attempt is being perceived as the first of its kindin the State wherein a gas cutter was put to use to break the bank chest and some of the lockers in the strong room. Incidents of this kind are known to have occurred in the past at places like New Delhi and Lucknow but never in the State.

Even in a crime-infested megapolis like Mumbai, there have been instances of armed dacoities or attempts while the bank cash was in the process of remittance, i.e. being transported either way between the bank and the RBI treasury in vans, the officer said.

When asked whether the perpetrators of the `burglary attempt' at Nagpur had any links with those who pulled off a daring daylight dacoity of bank cash near Akola last month, he observed that there was a vast difference in the modus operandi adopted in the two incidents and hence, a link was unlikely.

In the dacoity near Akola, the culprits intercepted the bank vehicle which was transporting the cash, assaulted and fired at the guards and snatched two boxes containing cash worth nearly Rs 14 lakh. This, he said, wasnot the case with the attempt at Nagpur. At the most, the incident could be a burglary attempt, he added.

Investigators feel that it was solely to the credit of the sheer strength of the steel-bodied bank chest that saved the day for the bankmen and providing a great cause of relief to scores of depositors.

By circumstances or otherwise, the Kingsway Road branch of the Oriental Bank of Commerce has always remained in news over the past one year or so. While in the immediate instance, it were the inadequate security measures that were left thoroughly exposed, earlier it hit the headlines for the detection of an inter-state fake currency racket involving among other culprits, a high-ranking officer of the same bank.