Jamshedpur, March 10 (IANS) In a daring daylight robbery, armed criminals looted around Rs 15 lakh from a branch of Canara Bank in the Sakra area of Baharagora in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

According to police and bank officials, five to six masked criminals stormed into the bank around 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Brandishing country-made pistols and sharp weapons, criminals terrorised employees and customers for nearly 15 minutes before fleeing with cash and valuables.

Police said the robbers arrived on three motorcycles. Four of them entered the bank while two others kept a watch outside. Upon entering, the criminals snatched the mobile phones of all the customers and bank staff to prevent anyone from informing the police.

The robbers threatened Assistant Branch Manager Saurabh Verma at gunpoint and demanded that he open the bank lockers. However, as it was the rural branch and it did not have locker facilities, the criminals became livid and forcibly took Verma’s gold chain and ring.

They then looted approximately Rs 15 lakh from the cash counter and cash room, stuffing the money into a bag before escaping.

Before fleeing, the criminals locked the main gate of the bank from the outside, trapping employees and customers inside the bank.

Police later reached the spot, broke open the lock and rescued them.

According to eyewitness accounts, the robbers were speaking in Bengali while issuing threats to the bank staff in Hindi. After leaving the bank, they threw the seized mobile phones into a nearby field to delay any attempt to track them.

During the incident, the criminals also mistook the bank’s internet device for a hard disk and attempted to take it away. However, Branch Manager Nanaji Rao managed to secure the actual hard disk, preventing the loss of crucial data.

Soon after the incident, Ghatsila DSP Ajit Kumar Kujur reached the bank along with a police team after being alerted by residents.

Police have now launched an investigation and are examining CCTV footage from the bank and nearby areas to identify and track down the criminals.

–IANS

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