In a broad day light incident of dacoity at Punjab National Bank in Deoband police station area of Saharanpur district, unidentified armed miscreants looted a cash of Rs 10.5 lakh holding the bank staff on the hostage. The miscreants also attacked the cashier when he resisted the loot. According to reports, the miscreants reached the bank, which is located in Kheda Mugal locality, on a luxurious car. They entered the bank as the security guard mistook them as customers. After entering the bank, they trained pistol asking the staff and those present inside the bank to stand still at their places. Bank’s cashier, Sheesh Pal, showed bravery and resisted to their warning following which one of the miscreants attacked at him with pistol butt injuring him at his head. They then looted the cash and left the bank.
DIG Ashok Kumar Raghav admitted that armed robbers looted the cash after assaulting cashier Sheesh Pal Singh and threatening the other bank employees. The officer said that robbers to take around ten minutes to execute the crime and it seemed that they had specific information that the movement of customers at the bank will be very thin. He said the miscreants left the crime scene in their car. The bank employees said they rushed towards the nearest police station but no one was available there and later, the information was given to Deoband police station.
A team of police was thereafter sent to the crime scene for investigation. The police registered a case in this connection and started the investigation. Based on the registration number a police team had been sent to Uttarakhand in search of the criminals. Further investigations of the case are on. The incident exposed the police alertness and security arrangement at financial institutes like banks. It may be noted that the DGP UP had given orders to the police chiefs and officers to keep a close vigil around the financial instates to prevent such incidents.