Daylight bank robbery on Gola Road

Patna: Around six Criminals robbed a bank in daylight and escaped with Rs 2.9 lakh cash after taking customers and bank employees hostage at gun point in Patna on Thursday.

Police said five criminals armed with local-made pistols entered the Gola Road branch of Vijaya Bank as customers around 3.30pm and took four customers and employees hostage. Thereafter the criminals, who had covered their faces with clothes, went on a looting spree.

The manager of the bank, Manish Yadav, told the police they hit two employees with revolver butts when they resisted. The robbers who were in the age group of 20 and 25 years collected Rs 2.9 lakh from the cash counter and made their escape good.

The operation lasted for 10 minutes. They left the bank warning those present in the bank with dire consequences if they reported the incident to the police and tried to follow them. An eyewitness, Munna Kumar, said the robbers behaved as if they were aware of every corner of the building.

The bank is on the first floor of the building owned by Danapur block pramukh Sunil Kumar. Though the action of the robbers was captured in the CCTV installed at the bank, there was no security guard which made the robbers’ job easier. The incident occurred hardly a kilometer from Rupaspur police station under whose jurisdiction the site falls. Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj, along with superintendent of police (west) Ravindra Kumar and Danapur additional superintendent of police Manoj Tiwari, reached the bank and inquired about the incident. “The criminals will be arrested soon. The video clips of the CCTV installed in the bank as well as outside the building are being collected. The police will crack the case soon,” Maharaaj said.

He added that the borders of the district have been sealed and a vehicle-checking drive has been launched to nab the robbers. “We are on the job and will give results soon,” he said. However, neither any robber could be arrested nor money was recovered till the time of filing the report.

Residents of the area were shocked on hearing about the loot in such an upscale Danapur locality. “One can understand the kind of policing being conducted when a bank in the heart of Patna is robbed in daylight by half a dozen criminals,” said a resident.

He also questioned the police’s much-touted vehicle-checking drive. “How is it possible that six criminals carrying weapons moved on two-wheelers and the police never stopped them on the road,” he said.

Courtesy: The Telegraph