Accused held in Surat bank robbery case shot in leg by police after ‘he opens fire’
3 min readVadodaraMay 9, 2026 02:26 PM IST
Two accused Thakur, 24, and Vikram Singh Rajput, 30, residents of Gonda, Bihar, who were arrested from Uttar Pradesh, are in police remand till May 14. (Express photo)
One of the accused in the Surat bank robbery case was allegedly shot in the leg by police on Friday when he tried to escape by firing in the air in a bid to escape, officers said. The alleged incident took place on the outskirts of Kanyasi village where the Surat City Crime Branch took one of the accused Shubham Thakur to locate the weapons used in the April 27 heist at the State Bank of India (SBI) branch on Varachha road in Surat. Surat City Commissioner of Police Anupamsinh Gahlaut told The Indian Express that the police officials had fired in retaliation after Thakur allegedly fired a round from the weapon used in the crime, during the process of panchnama of recovery.
“The accused was taken for the recovery of his weapon, which was buried in a field… During the exercise of the panchnama of recovery of his particular weapon used in the dacoity, the accused fired one round in the air and attempted to escape. A police officer fired in retaliation…,” Gahlaut told The Indian Express.
A joint team from the Crime Branch and Varachha Police station escorted Thakur to a secluded spot to locate alleged weapons used in the heist and Thakur opened fire with the concealed weapon, police said.
According to sources, Assistant Commissioner of Police K I Modi allegedly fired a single round which hit Thakur in the leg. Two accused Thakur, 24, and Vikram Singh Rajput, 30, residents of Gonda, Bihar, who were arrested from Uttar Pradesh, are in police remand till May 14.Story continues below this ad According to police, a gang of armed robbers had looted Rs 52 lakh cash from the SBI branch in a daylight heist by threatening the bank employees and customers at gunpoint. CCTV footage showed the presence of five accused persons. The perpetrators had snatched the mobile phones of the bank customers and employees to prevent them from alerting the police in a timely manner, and they also allegedly disabled the alarm system. Police have claimed that a gangster in Bihar’s Beur jail identified as Kundan Bhagat plotted the heist in the hope of stealing gold, but got unlucky as the keys to the vault were with the manager, who was away on duty for the Gujarat local body polls. According to police, the SBI branch in Varachha ranks second in the city in approving gold loans, which the robbers seemed to be aware of. The police said the robbers had bought a second-hand motorbike from Telangana with a fake licence plate and rode to Surat and stayed there for two months, taking houses on rent using fake Aadhaar cards which they made in Madhya Pradesh. Story continues below this ad “Thakur is one among five gang members who entered the SBI Varachha bank on April 27,” Gahlaut told The Indian Express earlier.
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