A calm Monday morning at Canara Bank’s Chikhla branch in Sitasawangi, Bhandara, turned dramatic fast! The bank staff found the strongroom broken into, with a whopping Rs 1.58 crore missing. But hold on, the culprit was not some outsider — it was the 32-year-old assistant manager himself, Mayur Nepale! According to TOI reports, he stole the cash to clear his heavy online gambling debts. Nepale, a Nagpur resident and UPSC aspirant, pulled off this daring heist alone. Using his insider access, he tried to make the robbery look like an ordinary burglary, even copying tricks from past crimes and online tutorials. He snapped power lines, disabled cameras, wiped fingerprints, and masked his scent. But one small CCTV camera outside the bank caught him on his scooter, arriving with empty bags and leaving with them packed. How did the robbery happen? Nepale broke the channel gate and shutter lock, used duplicate keys to open the strongroom, and removed camera devices before emptying the cash chests. Earlier, on November 13, he had increased the cash at the branch by requesting Rs 85 lakh from RBI, raising the total cash to almost five times normal levels. On November 17 night, he bought four bags and in the early hours of November 18 arrived at the bank to carry out the theft. Staff only found out the next morning and alerted police. Bhandara police formed 10 teams from cyber and crime units to investigate. Nepale’s suspicious actions raised red flags. He had taken sudden leave on November 17 and returned on the same scooter seen on CCTV, pretending to help with the probe. Police found most of the stolen cash hidden in his car. A team also searched his wife's residence in Nagpur. After initial denial, Nepale confessed. Police recovered Rs 96.12 lakh in cash, a Tata Nexon car, the crime scooter, a Redmi phone, and stolen DVRs — assets worth Rs 1.07 crore. Nepale’s debts were huge: over Rs 80 lakh, including Rs 30 lakh lost to online gambling, Rs 12 lakh personal loan, Rs 8.5 lakh car loan, Rs 3.5 lakh education loan, Rs 3 lakh Paytm loan, and Rs 20 lakh from private lenders. Desperate to pay his dues and continue betting, he robbed his own bank. He now faces charges of theft, criminal breach of trust, and destroying evidence. Police plan to warn RBI about security lapses and suggest using cloud-based CCTV backups so no one can get away so easily again.