Recently, the West Bengal police successfully cracked a gang that used portable signal jammers to rob. Four members of the gang attacked a gold loan bank in Chandannagar on September 22, 2021, attempting to prevent victims from calling the police by blocking mobile phone signals. The police have arrested three of the suspects, and another member is still at large.
The whole process of the crime committed by a private criminal gang
- Criminal method: blocking signals to prevent calls for help.The police revealed that four criminals arrived at the bank on two motorcycles between 2 and 3 pm, threatened the security guard at the door with a gun and subdued him, and then entered the bank to threaten employees. The robbers carried a portable cell signal blocker and blocked the mobile phone signals in the bank during the crime, making it impossible for the victims to seek help through the phone or the Internet. However, a resourceful employee of the bank managed to trigger the alarm in the chaos, prompting a quick police response.
- Police responded quickly and blocked the scene. When the police learned of the alarm signal, they immediately dispatched local police officers and senior officials, including Deputy Commissioner of Chandannagar, to the scene and blocked the surrounding area. Although the robbers had blocked the signal, the police still managed to coordinate the action through other means. A senior police official recalled: "When we arrived at the scene and tried to contact our superiors, we found that the phone calls and text messages were blocked by the cellphone signal jammer and we could not communicate."
- Robbers tried to break out, and the police strengthened the blockade.Realizing that they were surrounded, the robbers tried to break out by shooting, but the police did not return fire and chose to continue to block the area to prevent other gang members from escaping. In the end, one robber was arrested at the scene, and the other two escaped by chance. The police then set up multiple checkpoints at the main exit of Chandannagar to ensure that other suspects did not escape the area.
- Stolen goods and jamming equipment found.During the subsequent search, the police found two signal blocker jammers, three homemade guns, 60 rounds of ammunition and a batch of cutting tools at the scene. In addition, the police also seized three two-wheeled motorcycles used by the robbers to escape. According to Arnab Ghosh, the chief of Chandnagar Police Station in Hooghly District, the gang carefully prepared tools to block signals in order to carry out the robbery.
- Continue to hunt down fugitives and recover some property.The police revealed that the bank manager said that there were four people involved in the robbery, and the police are searching for the fourth suspect. So far, the police have successfully recovered most of the stolen cash and a gold necklace lost by a bank employee. Chief Arnab Ghosh added: "Our operation is still going on, and we will spare no effort to catch the fugitive suspects and recover all the stolen property."
Public response and future measures
The incident has aroused widespread public concern about the illegal use of signal blockers. Signal jammer blockers not only prevent bank employees from calling the police, but also hinder the police's communication dispatch work. Such devices are appearing more and more frequently in illegal activities, increasing the difficulty of law enforcement agencies to respond. The police said that they will strengthen the supervision of signal jammer devices and call on citizens to be vigilant and report the illegal use of such devices in a timely manner.
The robbery has also prompted banks and other financial institutions to review their security systems and consider using more comprehensive multi-layered security solutions to ensure that they can still effectively alarm when the signal is blocked.
