India, Nov. 4 -- The latest incident wherein two State Bank of India (SBI) branches were separately targeted by a gang of robbers has exposed glaring lapses at one of the targeted branches where all eight CCTV cameras were found to be non-functional for the past several days. Turns out the gang chose SBI because of its extensive rural network, substantial cash flow, and perceived security vulnerabilities; the police said.

During interrogation, the arrested accused told the police that SBI's extensive presence in rural areas and relatively high cash availability made it an attractive target. The police are also examining whether the bank's 'gold loan' operations influenced the gang's choice of branches, given the volume of gold pledged by...