The Vadodara police have received letters from both the banks, ICICI and Axis Bank, declining to file a complaint. The letters stated that the security agency was responsible for the heist and that they (the banks) were ensured of repayment by the agency so they would not file a case, Commissioner of Police Rajan Priyadarshee said.

The decision comes even as the police said that such reluctance and secrecy on the part of the private banks did not make it any easy for the police to solve such white-collar crimes. Sources said that after the police cracked the case and notified the banks, the response was distant as the banks refused to file a complaint, only delaying the investigation. An official police complaint was lodged on January 30, three days after the case came to light.

Meanwhile, sources said that employees from the banks could have been involved in the incident. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior police official said, “Nobody was willing to file an FIR and the security agency filed the complaint only after the private banks submitted to the police that though their ATMs were burgled, they did not want to register a case.”

The CMS Securitas Agency is likely to bear the brunt of the entire incident and pay Rs 99 lakh to the banks, the total amount that was siphoned off by its two employees. Senior CMS officials said that the agency had to repay the bank all the money stolen and they had to bear the loss according to a contract with its clients.