Other States - Orissa   

Rs. 50 lakhs looted from bank staff

BHUBANESWAR: It was like a scene out of an old Hindi blockbuster when five unidentified persons looted Rs. 50 lakhs from a team of employees of the Union Bank of India in Sambalpur district of Orissa on Wednesday.

It occurred around 11 a.m. near a bridge on the Sambalpur-Cuttack highway under the Charmal police station, but police came to know of it only at around 1 p.m. The armed robbers must have travelled a long distance by then.

The robbers, who were wearing fake Orissa police uniforms, were travelling in a Tata Sumo vehicle. Getting down from the vehicle, they stopped the jeep in which the bank employees were travelling with the cash. The bank employees were carrying the money from their Rourkela branch to Bhubaneswar.

The robbers first wanted to verify the licence of the weapon of the bank guard who was in the vehicle. Once they took possession of the guard’s weapon, they asked them to get inside their own vehicle at gunpoint and instructed the driver to follow.

The robbers drove their vehicle into a nearby forest where they reportedly administered some sedative injections on the four bank employees – the guard, a clerk, a peon and driver – and tied their hands before fleeing the spot with the cash.

A resident of the nearby village, who went for fishing in the area, spotted the bank employees crying for help from inside their vehicle, and informed the police.

The Charmal police registered a case and a manhunt was launched in the region to nab the robbers. The police in neighbouring Chhattisgarh were also alerted.

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