The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Gang strikes at bank, takes away Rs. 2.9 lakh in cash; two injured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Gang strikes at bank, takes away Rs. 2.9 lakh in cash; two injured

Staff Reporter

Bank officials resist attack, save reserve cash kept in locker

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

LOOKING FOR CLUES: Investigation is on at Andhra Bank in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: A five-member gang assaulted officials of a bank and made away with around Rs. 2.9 lakh in cash in Rajarajeshwari Nagar on Monday. Bank officials resisted the dacoits as a result of which they could save the reserve cash kept in the locker.

The gang went to Andhra Bank’s branch on BEML Layout 3rd Stage Main Road in Rajarajeshwari Nagar and attacked the bank manager N.S. Harish and his colleague Chaya Balakrishna in the locker room and seized the cash kept in the open counter.

The dacoity happened around 1.30 p.m., half an hour before the branch closes for lunch.

According to a bank official who did not want to be named, four of the five bank staff were working at that time.

Mr. Harish doubled as the cashier as the employee assigned the task left to attend to an emergency. Ms. Balakrishna was attending to the cheques, while Somanna, another employee, was in a room nearby doing clerical work.

That was when two men came to the branch and waited silently. When Ms. Balakrishna asked what they wanted, five more barged in. Holding machetes and guns, the gang forced Mr. Harish, Ms. Balakrishna and Mr. Somanna into the room where safety lockers are kept. They attacked the bank staff, hitting Mr. Harish on his head with the butt of a gun. They asked for the key of the locker where reserve cash of about Rs. 10 lakh was kept. While the gang members got hold of one key, they could not get the companion key to open the locker.

“Mr. Harish told the dacoits that the key had been taken by the cashier. Due to his presence of mind Mr. Harish saved the day as the key was right in the bank itself,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur.

As this was going on inside, Sandeep, a resident of the area, came to the bank to withdraw money from his savings account. The dacoits dragged him inside the room and locked up everybody there. They also snatched the mobile phones of the bank staff but could not find Sandeep’s, who had stashed it away in his back pocket. The dacoits escaped with the cash kept in the cash counter. “It was all over in 10 minutes,” the bank official said.

Sandeep then called his friend Praveen and told him about the dacoity. “When I came around 2 p.m. there was silence in the branch. I shut the grill door and borrowed a lock from the neighbouring motor driving school to lock the branch,” Praveen told The Hindu. Hearing no sounds from within, he opened the locker room where he found the injured bank staff. He immediately called the police and made arrangements for treatment for Mr. Harish and Ms. Balakrishna in a nearby private hospital. Mr. Hosur said the police have clues about the involvement of an inter-State gang in the dacoity. “They will be shortly traced,” he said.

No security

The residents of the area said the bank did not have security guards. “I have not seen any security guard here,” said Saraswati, who stays next to the bank. She said she did not find anything amiss when she came out to send her daughter off to her office around 1.30 p.m. “A labourer informed me about the incident around 2 p.m.,” she added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka