Four unidentified armed men today looted Rs 3.21 lakh cash from Kanke Road branch of Punjab National Bank here on Thursday.
“Four criminals came upstairs with masked faces and fled with the cash gathering it from the head cashier after injuring him on his head from the butt of the pistol. All the four persons had covered their faces with muffler or something while one was wearing a helmet,” said Sadar DSP Vikas Chadra Srivastava. One of them barged into the cash counter and put the gun on his head and collected all the new currency from there and fled away, he added.
The Bank Manager disclosed that the robbers took away more than Rs 3 lakh. “During the assessment made after the loot, it was found that the robbers have taken away a cash of Rs 3, 21,500,” said Bank Manager Neelam P Hans. The loot amount also included one bundle of Rs 2,000 notes, three bundles of Rs 100 notes and around 5-6 bundles of Rs 10 notes.
Incidentally, no security guards have been provided to the branch since it was opened in April 2013.
The bank staff said that four masked men entered into the bank, two of them had pistols in their hands while the other two were holding daggers. They asked the customers present in the bank to be aside towards the Bank Manager’s cabin while one of them barged into the cashier counter by breaking the door open with his leg.
“One of them came inside my cabin, breaking the door open by kicking on it. When I tried to get inside the toilet, he punched at my head with the butt of his revolver and cautioned me to stay calm or he will shoot me. He gathered whatever cash was lying there on my table and inside the drawer and fled away leaving the old currency of Rs 500 and 1000 worth Rs 5 lakh untouched,” said Head Cashier Deepak Kumar. Everything happened so quickly that they did not get any time raise alarm to do something, he added.
Since it was lunch time, very few customers were there in the bank making it easy for them to loot.
The police have registered a case of loot against four unknown persons and have started investigations into the matter. “We have procured the CCTV footage from the bank and forensic experts have taken samples of fingerprints for further reference which will later help us to nab the criminals,” said Sadar DSP.
Police however, taking clues from the CCTV footage, immediately started searching for the criminals by putting barricades inside the town and in the rural areas as well.There are eight CCTV cameras installed in the bank including one at the ATM located downstairs.