Five unidentified armed robbers snatched Rs 29 lakh from a microfinance firm official on Tuesday. Sugreev Singh, Manager of Asirvad Microfinance Pvt ltd, was robbed at gunpoint on the entrance of his office building in Sanskriti Vihar locality of Bariatu.
Singh was dropped by his driver at the gate of the building with a bag containing the stolen money when armed robbers forced him give up the bag. They also fired some aerial rounds before fleeing the scene, according to witnesses.
Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Dwivedi, Superintendent of Police (City) Kishor Kaushal and Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Vikas Chandra Srivastava visited the office.
On orders from the SSP, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to investigate the robbery on the spot itself. A team of Crime Investigation Department (CID) sleuths also visited the scene of crime to gather clues in the case.
“Five robbers on two motorcycles carried out the robbery. It seems they already knew that a significant sum of money is being transported to the microfinance company. They were hidden in the crowd as they waited for the money to arrive,” stated Dwivedi.
No CCTV footage of the robbers has been found, though, he added.
“A special team has been formed for look into the case. Another special team we formed recently was successful in retrieving the stolen vehicle of CM’s press aide Yogesh Kislay,” Dwivedi said.
Considering that the robbers were waiting for Singh to arrive with money, police officials are not foregoing the notion that this robbery might be an inside job.
“The criminals were keeping a watch on the office of the microfinance company, which indicates that someone from the company might have told them about the money coming in. If this proves to be the case, then they will be accessory to the robbery,” stated Sadar DSP Srivastava.
In light of this incident, Ranchi Police is now planning to exhort non-banking finance companies, microfinance companies and business establishments to contact their local police stations before they move their monetary collections.
“We are offering the service that organisations can contact us if they are taking huge sums of money from one place to another. Some establishments are even availing this facility and they it is very effective,” Dwivedi said.
He added, “We will issue an advisory soon for NBFCs and business establishments, asking them to inform their local police stations before taking substantial amounts of money from one place to another and put some security provisions in place.”