Post News Network
Baripada, Jan 14: Miscreants Wednesday looted Rs 8.17 lakh from Nichuapada branch of the Orissa Gramya Bank (OGB) on Baripada-Chitrada road in Mayurbhanj district after threatening the staffers at gunpoint.
According to reports, three masked men, all armed with guns, came to the bank at about 2.30 pm when no customer was there. They first hit the branch manager, Kartik Chandra Biswal, with a gun while threatening others. The robbers confined four other staff members in the manager’s room and took away the mobile phone of Biswal. The manager, out of fear, handed over the locker keys to the robbers. While Rs 5 lakh was taken from the locker, the rest amount was looted from the cash counter. The miscreants fired in the blank before leaving the premises, bank sources said.
Alerted, superintendent of police Anoop Krishna, sub-divisional police officer Suresh Jena and inspector-in-charge Tilottama Rout arrived at the spot and started an investigation by tracking the mobile phone of the manager. The OGB’s regional manager Saroj Kumar Khuntia also reached the bank following the incident. A siren of the bank remaining defunct for the last two years, removal of security guards from the bank and absence of customers during the robbery raised several eyebrows.
Similarly, the other staff members of the bank neither informed the police nor the locals after the robbery though they had mobile phones with them, sources said.
