Unknown miscreants decamped with Rs 11 lakh from the cash counter of the Punjab National Bank situated in the heart of the city here in the busy VSS Marg on Monday just at the beginning of the business hour. The entire operation is captured by the CCTV camera of the bank that the police have banked upon for an investigation.
As per information, five/six persons-all well dressed - entered into the bank as customers when it opened at 10.30 am. However, they remained scattered and one of them was keeping watch on the cash counter, as per the CCTV footage.
The counter incharge and other senior officer brought Rs 11 lakh from the strong room and the cashier kept the entire cash inside the drawer of his table. The head cashier of the branch cum in charge of the cash counter left the counter for some work at 10. 43 am just for a few minutes.
And taking the advantage of the situation, an unidentified person entered into the counter through a side gate at the same time and pulled away entire cash of Rs 11 lakh from the drawers, kept it in a bag and decamped.
He took only 10 seconds to finish the entire operation since the CCTV shows the man leaving the counter at 10. 44 am.
The cashier came back to counter at 10. 45 am and started doing his normal jobs. At the initial stage, he couldn’t know that the cash was stolen. After resuming the normal duty, when he looked for the cash
from the drawers to pay the customers, then only he could know that it was not in the place. He immediately informed Branch Manager Ajit Kumar Patnaik about the incident. And at1pm, the Branch Manager informed the police about the theft.
“This is a very well planned theft and more than one person might be involved here,” the police suspect.
“The cashier left the counter without locking the drawer where the cash was kept. Moreover, he also did not alert the security guard on duty before leaving the counter. The theft took place because of the negligence of the cashier,” said additional superintendent of police SK Baral.
“We also fail to understand why the bank people informed us at 1.00 pm almost 2. 15 hours after the incident,” Baral said further. He informed that the face of the thief is not clear in the CCTV footage.
He further informed that only one CCTV out of the two was functioning that again speaks of the laxity in the safety aspect in the bank.A worried branch manager Patnaik refused to give any comment on the incident. “I can’t say anything now. Police investigation could unearth everything,” he asserted.