(From left) The ventilator through which the thief entered the bank manager’s room, the iron grill which he forced open to reach the safe room and the safe that he could not unlock, at the PMCH branch of Punjab National Bank in Patna on Friday. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Oct. 7: Furious over not being able to break open an iron safe after making his way through three locked doors, a thief lost his cool and penned down his personal details, challenging the men in uniform to catch him if they can.

The thief made a daring entry into the PMCH branch of the Punjab National Bank last night but was unable to break open the safe despite pulling it off the wall.

The incident, the third in a month, took place at a time when the police were busy managing crowds that had assembled on the roads and at the ghats for the immersion procession.

“It is quite frightening. Inside the bank, there are two CCTV cameras. The thief first broke the monitoring screen and placed the same on a desk. Then he turned the angle of the camera. The alarm system of the bank was also snapped. Near the screen, we discovered a register in which it was written: naam - Akela, umar - 25, ghar - Lohanipur, rang - saanwla, police ko challenge. (name - Akela, age - 25, house - Lohanipur, complexion - wheatish, challenge to the police),” Bharat Ram, the bank manager, told The Telegraph.

The bank is located in front of the emergency ward on the PMCH premises. The thief first got into the block and then broke open a windowpane and slipped inside through it. He then reached a gallery which has offices of several departments, said a police officer at Pirbohore police station.

“The person then climbed up a door and again slipped through a narrow ventilator and entered yet another gallery which has many administrative offices of the PMCH. He again climbed up a door and got into yet another narrow ventilator, this time entering the manager’s chamber at the bank. He carefully got down and first took off the CCTV monitor and then turned the two CCTV cameras to the other side. He walked in and broke open a lock of an iron grill that separates the safe room from the employees’ area. The man reached the safe and literally uprooted it from the steel clamps which had fastened it to the wall. He, however, couldn’t open the safe,” the officer added.

The cop added that it was a daring attempt.

“He passed through at least three very difficult hurdles to reach the safe. From this it is sure that the man knew the layout of the floor and the exact way to enter the bank through an alternative route. He must have carefully studied the area or might have worked in connivance with an insider working in PMCH or the bank. The man also knew about the alarm system and the CCTV locations inside the bank,” the officer added.

This is the third incident of theft or attempted theft inside a bank in the past one month. In the first incident, thieves entered a State Bank of India branch but failed to reach the main safe.

In the second incident, robbers looted the Niraspura branch of Bank of India under Naubatpur police station and fled with Rs 1.25 lakh. Altogether, six employees are posted at the branch.