The Hindu : New Delhi News : Daring robbery in bank

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Daring robbery in bank

Staff Reporter

Man snatches cash from petrol pump attendant

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old man was robbed of several lakhs in cash by an unidentified armed young man inside a bank at Paschim Vihar in West Delhi on Thursday.

According to the police, Chand Ram, the supervisor of a petrol pump at Bhera Enclave in Paschim Vihar, had gone to deposit the sales proceeds in the nearby branch of Allahabad Bank around 10 a.m.

He was standing in queue waiting for his turn at the counter when a young man tried to snatch the bag he was carrying. When Chand Ram offered resistance, the young man whipped out a country-made revolver and forced Chand to part with the bag, in which Rs. 7 lakhs were kept, and escaped with the bag.

Subsequently, the police were informed. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the robber used a white Maruti car to escape from the scene.

However, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), Neeraj Thakur, the police were trying to verify if it was indeed a white Maruti car.

"Many vehicles were moving on that road at the time and none of the eyewitnesses actually saw the man escaping in a particular car. But it cannot be ruled out also," he said. So far, the police are also not sure of the exact number of people involved in the incident.

Eyewitnesses saw only one man but there could be others involved too, the police said.

They have also not ruled out the possibility of the robber, who seemed to have carried out a proper recce of the area, having prior information about the movement of the victim. They added that some one might have tipped-off the robber about Chand carrying huge amount of cash.

The police also said the Bank is located on the ground floor in a very small accommodation and there was not much security.

This is the second incident over the past fortnight in which robbers have looted huge amounts of cash from within the bank premises. On April 9, the robbers had escaped with over Rs. 5 lakhs from Canara Bank in Timarpur, North Delhi, after holding the employees to ransom at gunpoint. In that incident too, the robbers were said to have escaped in a Maruti car.

Meanwhile, a case of robbery has been registered at Paschim Vihar police station and further investigations are on.

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