The Commissionerate police on Wednesday felicitated the courageous youths who foiled a bank robbery attempt at Balianta, on the city outskirts. City DCP Uma Shankar Dash felicitated Aftab and six of his friends for foiling the attempt to rob the Balianta branch of the State Bank of India on Tuesday. A lone miscreant had robbed the bank of Rs 8.5 lakh and some gold ornaments by brandished a toy gun during the closing hours of the bank. He huddled all the employees into a corner and asked them to kneel down.Then he tied their hands behind their backs and took the locker keys by terrorising them with the toy gun.
The robber identified as Shankar Parida of the Balianta area also attacked two of the bank employees with a knife before decamping with the cash and gold. However, some local youths led by Aftab chased the robbe and managed to nab him. They also recovered cash and gold ornaments from him. He was handed over to the police.