Four persons have been arrested by the Baleswar police in the case of an armed bank robbery that had occurred around 1.30 pm on Tuesday in the Bidu branch of Gramya Bank in Soro, in which cash of nearly Rs 11.70 lakh had been looted.
The arrested persons are Ratikanta Mohanty (24) and Pagulu Mohanty (21), both are residents of Uttara Chhak under Khantapatra police station, and Sabita Mohanty (28) and her husband Harish Chandra Mohanty (33), both are from Srikrushnapur, Remuna. Sabita and Harish are the sister and brother-in-law of Ratikanta.
According to police, four persons entered the bank after opening blank fire in air to terrorise the bank officials as well as the customers. Then, after getting access to the locker, they decamped with cash of Rs 11,70,325 and sped away in two bikes. However, later they were nabbed as several routes were barricaded by the police.
During interrogation, the police recovered gold jewellery weighing about 250 gm, worth Rs 8 lakh, and cash of Rs 1.15 lakh from their possession. The other seized articles included a pistol, two live cartridges, a dagger, five mobile phones and a motor cycle that was used in the crime.“There could be more arrests in the case and the accused included an album artist too,” said Amresh Panda, DSP, Crime, Baleswar. “The culprits were caught due to the joint efforts of Soro, Sadar and Nilgiri police, besides intelligence inputs,” said Nilgiri SDPO SP Mallick.