According to Deputy Manager M Deshpande, the police have picked up four persons on Sunday morning on charges of theft. “The four persons are Branch Manager Padmakar Gadgil and bank officials Ashish Madhukar Dhire, Chetan Bhambhre and Aniket Thambe. All four of them had accessed the bank lockers of the customers being the custodians,” added Chaudhary.

He added there was neither any breach in any form nor were the locks broken. “As custodians, they had a set of 20 keys. Entry was possible only when these officials simultaneously open the lockers on each side of the vaults,” said Chaudhary.

The police said the 20 bags consisted of 22.38 kilograms of gold worth Rs 22.34 lakh and 1,650 grams of silver worth Rs 18,000.

Chaudhary further said there is a possibility of more bank officials being involved in the racket. “This is not a small matter. There could be more arrests as we are interrogating these officials,” added the officer.