Armed miscreants on Tuesday looted Rs46 lakh in broad daylight in two separate incidents in the steel city. Though the police sealed the borders and launched a search operation, they were still clueless about the culprits.
In the first incident, seven miscreants entered the Indian Overseas Branch (IOB) on the main road pretending to be customers. After entering into the bank, they suddenly overpowered two staffs of the bank by brandishing guns and asked for the Branch Manager.
After locating him, they asked him at gunpoint to open the locker room.
Rs42 looted from IOB in Rourkela
later, they collected all the cash and the CD of CCTV camera with them and fled from the spot. Before leaving, they also snatched a gold chain from a woman customer.
“From the estimate, we have come to know that the miscreants have looted about Rs 41.65 lakh cash from our branch,” said branch Chief Manager Sanjay Jha.
Receiving information, a team of officials from the Plant Site police station reached the spot and started investigation. Rourkela SP Uma Shankar Das and DIG (WR) Kabita Jalan also reached the spot and took stock of the situation. During investigation, police ascertained that the miscreants were speaking in Hindi and were suspected to be from the neighbouring Jharkhand.
In another incident, two officials of Bank of Baroda (BoB) collected Rs4.4 lakh from the BoB’s main branch and were on their way to a branch in Kacharu by a two-wheeler when armed miscreants intercepted them and looted the cash from them. Two of their staffs also reached the spot, but the miscreants brandished guns at then and fled from the spot.