In a brazen broad daylight robbery, six armed criminals looted Rs 20 lakh within a span of 20 to 30 minutes from an Axis bank branch near Nirsa in the district on Tuesday. Police said that the six criminals looted Rs 20 lakh from the Nirsa branch of Axis bank on the outskirts of Dhanbad town and Rs few thousand from customers, under the Nirsa police station area of the district. Though, SSP Kaushal Kishor, Dhanbad said primary investigations revealed that the Axis bank was robbed of Rs 20 lakh.
Sources said that a gang of six criminals entered the Nirsa branch of Axis bank around 1.30 pm and looted Rs 20 lakh in cash after holding the manager, and other employees of the bank hostage at gunpoint. The robbers, aged between 20 and 25 years, didn’t even spare the customers and forced them to part with their cash and cellphones. The SSP Kaushal Kishor said the robbers barged into the bank just before the lunch hour and threatened the bank employees and the customers by brandishing guns.
Then the robbers looted Rs 20,00000 from strong room and cashier and also snatched the cash and mobiles from customers and decamped with cash. Following the incident Nirsa police immediately reached the branch soon after getting information and carried out an investigation in connection to the incident and raids are on to arrest the criminals involved in the crime. While the exact amount looted from the bank is yet to be known, it is estimated that the miscreants decamped with Rs 20 lakh, the SSP said.
Sources also informed that the miscreants allegedly hurled two crude bombs back to back and customers before ransacking the cash counter inside the branch. The police claimed that the brazen dacoity was executed in just 20 to 30 minutes.