Bargarh: In a massive bank heist, miscreants decamped with `45 lakh in cash and gold worth `50 lakh from the local branch of Bank of Baroda (BoB) at Bhatli Chhak here late Monday night.
Based on a complaint lodged by branch manager K Than, police registered a case and launched an investigation with the help of a sniffer dog squad.
DIG Pratik Mohanty, SP B Yugal Kishore, additional SP Yashobant Senapati, SDPO Suresh Nayak, and Town police station IIC Biswamitra Harpal were at the bank and were interrogating staffers till the time of filing this report. BoB’s regional manager PK Mishra also arrived at the spot to take stock of the situation.
Circumstantial evidence indicates involvement of some bank employee behind the massive robbery, police said.
The branch was scheduled to be shifted to a new building at Bandutikra Chhak, about 200 m from its present location, Wednesday. The involvement of bank staff cannot be ruled out as there was some unusual activity ahead of the robbery, police sources said.
While the miscreants decided to loot the bank a very day before its shifting, the CCTV cameras were switched off two days prior to the incident. Similarly, though the looters entered the bank by breaking open the grill of a window, they did not break any lock of the safe. They rather used a bunch of keys which was left by the bank staff in the office drawer to open the safes and decamped with the cash and gold, it was learnt. Keeping the valuables in a safe instead of an iron chest has also raised questions about the integrity of bank officials.
All these factors would be taken into account during the probe, DIG Mohanty said.
On the other hand, the branch manager failed to come up with satisfactory replies when asked about the slackness in the security arrangements. No security guards were deputed at the branch after 11pm, he said.
According to reports, the shifting of the branch was going on for the last few days. Most of the furniture and other materials, except the cash and gold, had already been shifted.
A Class IV employee Kishore Meher along with Prashant Behera, an officer of the bank, first entered the bank Tuesday and got to know about the incident. They then immediately called the branch manager and the latter informed the police about the heist. PNN
