Three bike-borne miscreants looted Rs 1,25,600 at gunpoint from two staffs of lukumbeda gram panchayat under Nuagaon Block in Sundargarh district on Sunday morning.
Source said that while VlW Bimbadhar Sahoo and peon Jadu Badaik, in the presence of the lukumbeda Sarpanch and more than one hundred beneficiaries were distributing old age pension at about 8.30 am in the panchayat office, the three miscreants came by a bike and fled with the money after brandishing a gun.
When the Sarpanch tried to resist the criminals, he was beaten by them.
Though the identities of the looters were yet to be ascertained, it might be the work of the Jharkhand-based PlFI (People's liberation Front of India) group, according to the police. The Nharkhand border is just three km from the incident spot and a straight road connection is via Kharijore.
After the incident, Sundargarh SP Dayanidhi Gochhayat, Biramitrapur SDPO PK Routray and Hatibari PS OIC Ashis Sahoo rushed to the spot.
According to the police, as it is a bordering area and it was a Sunday, the panchayat staffs should have distributed the pension money to the beneficiaries after ensuring sufficient security measures.