Five arrested in Gopalganj bank loot case, money recovered

PATNA: Five criminals involved in the loot of Punjab National Bank’s Sasamusa branch were arrested by Gopalganj police from different locations in the district on Tuesday.
Rs 8.59 lakh was looted from currency chest and cash counter of the bank as soon as it opened on morning of December 30, 2017. The bank is located at Sasamusa market under Kuchaikot police station in the Gopalganj district.
Kuchaikot police station SHO Awadhesh Kumar said that Rs 1.05 lakh of the looted amount was also recovered by police on indications of the arrested criminals. Police also recovered six cellphones used before and after the loot by criminals for making calls and one country made pistol and its two cartridges.
“The arrested criminals were identified as Chote Lal, Aditya Pandey, Pankaj Kumar, Ritesh Tiwary and Ramu Kumar,” the SHO said.
SHO Kumar said that all the arrested criminals were in their early 20s and Lal was the mastermind who had planned the bank loot.
“Lal with two firearms in both hands along with accomplice Pappu Kumar and Manish Kumar had entered the bank while another criminal kept guarding the entrance during the loot,” he said adding Pappu and Manish were yet to be nabbed.
He said police first nabbed Lal after midnight on Monday from NH-28 near Bathna Kothi under Kuchaikot police station and recovered arms and ammunition and Rs 88,000 looted from the bank from his possession.
“On his indication, rest of the amount was recovered from Aditya’s possession which was a native of Kushinagar ditrict in Uttar Pradesh,” the SHO said.
He said that Lal told police that he had given some amount of the looted money to his close relative in Siwan and raids were on to arrest him. The SHO said that at least five more criminals involved in the loot were yet to be arrested.