Unidentified miscreants on Friday looted Rs5 lakh cash from a bank’s cash van and left one security guard injured during the robbery.
The incident took place outside the State Bank of Patiala at its Khuda Ali Sher branch at around 11.30 am. Around five assailants in two vehicles allegedly attacked the cash van and decamped with Rs5 lakh cash of the Rs67 lakh kept in the van, a police official said here.
“Rs5 lakh was looted out of Rs67 lakh which was kept in van,” Chandigarh SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said.
The assailants, who were armed with sharp-edged weapons and pistol, also injured one of the security guards sitting in the van who resisted the robbery, police said.
As soon as the two guards of the van started delivering two cash boxes to the branch, a group of five men attempted to rob the boxes from the two security guards, Jagtar Singh and Som lal. “The assailants having sharp-edged weapons and pistols, threatened us and also manhandled us, but Jagtar refused to hand over the cash to the accused," said Som lal, Security guard.
Meanwhile as the bank security guard, Mohan Singh Mann, noticed the two guards fighting with the robbers, he rushed for their help. During the clash, one of the robbers hit Mohan Singh with a brick and left him badly injured on the spot. In the meanwhile, security guard Jagtar fired a gunshot in the air. Sensing danger, the assailants sped away in their white coloured SUV.
Jagtar managed to snatch their sharp edged weapon, but no one could remember the registration number of their vehicle. In the melee, the robbers snatched one box from the security guards.
Jagtar told the police that the car had a Haryana registration number as he could read two alphabets on the number plate, said sources in the Crime branch.
Sarabjot Singh, driver of the van told the police that the currency delivery van left from Sector 17 branch in the morning and first delivered cash to SBP branch at Sector 16 and then to the branch at Sector 16 and a branch at Sarangpur.
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Rs5 lakh looted from bank's cash van
The robbers were following the van from Sarangpur branch.
During preliminary investigations, police have recovered black cloth masks, a bullet shell and the sharp edged weapon of the accused persons. CCTV footage from inside the bank was also recovered, but no clues of the vehicle could be traced as there was no CCTV camera installed near the bank where the robbers struck.
local residents said there is a police beat box barely 100 meters away from the bank branch, but no police official was present when the incident took place.
After two hours of the incident, an empty box was recovered from Kaimbala road at around 2:15 PM. The robbers threw away the empty box after taking the cash in it.
The white coloured SUV was also recovered later in the evening from near Mansa Devi complex. Sources said that the accused might have left the car as it was punctured.