In a chilling incident, a lady branch Manager of the ICICI Bank Ltd was stabbed to death and while a lady cashier was injured by a branch manager of Axis Bank Ltd, as the latter tried unsuccessfully to commit a heist at their bank at Virar (East) branch in the neighbouring Palghar district but was caught by the local people while trying to flee the place after the incident.

The incident involving the murder-cum-attempt to loot the ICICI Bank’s Virar (East) branch took place after the banking hours at 8 pm on Thursday. The accused banker Anil Dubey, (35) who is incidentally a former employee of the ICICI Bank, barged into the bank branch wearing a mask, when the two lady employees -- deputy Manager   Yogita Nishant Vartak-Choudhary (36) and cashier Shradha Devrukar (32) were closing the shutters of the bank. By then, all the bank staffers had left for the day.

The Virar police said that Dubey threatened the two lady employees with a sharp razor, forced them to open the locker, asked them to fill his bag with cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.38 crore and once they complied, he tried to flee the place with the looted booty.Yogita and Shradha resisted as Dubey tried to head out of the bank’s branch. Dubey attacked both of them with the razor he was carrying.

Yogita, who sustained multiple injuries on her throat, shoulder and other parts of her body, succumbed to her injuries later, while Shradha suffered injuries on her neck and shoulder. Shraddha, who is undergoing treatment at a local hospital, is said to be Rs out of danger’. 

Dubey, who was trying to escape using his car that he had parked outside the bank branch, was caught by the passers-by --who heard the screams of the two lady employees, as he ran towards his car.

Having taken serious cognisance of the incident, Axis Bank has, meanwhile, dismissed Dubey from the service and launched an internal probe into the matter relating to him. Axis Bank is also co-operating with the Virar police in the investigations.The investigations have revealed that Dubey used to work with ICICI Bank till one year ago, but left the job and took up another job in Axis Bank. A native of Punjab, he used to live with his wife and son at Nalasopara town.

“We have arrested Dubey and recovered the looted valuables from him,” Senior Inspector of Virar Police Station Suresh Warade said.

Warde said that Dubey had piled up huge debts of more than Rs 1 crore and that the latter might have tried to commit robbery to clear his dues.

In a related development, the Maharashtra State Bank Employees' Federation (MSBEF) has said that the absence of security guard outside the ICICI Bank’s Branch points to “a larger conspiracy which needs to be probed thoroughly,"

Terming the incident as “unfortunate” and “unprecedented”, MSBEF’s General Secretary Devidas Tuljapurkar said: "The question that arises is whether the Axis Bank had taken the mandatory statement of assets & liabilities of the accused person before recruiting Dubey in its set-up, especially since he came from a competitive bank. The absence of the security guard outside ICICI Bank points to a larger conspiracy which must be probed thoroughly".