Five held for bank loot in Gopalganj

PATNA: Five criminals were arrested on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in the loot of around Rs8.59 lakh from the Sasamusa branch of Punjab National Bank under the Kuchaikot police station area in Gopalganj district on December 30, 2017.
The arrested criminals were identified as Chote Lal, Aditya Pandey, Pankaj Kumar, Ritesh Tiwary and Ramu Kumar, police sources said.
Kuchaikot police station SHO Awadhesh Kumar told TOI over phone that Rs1.05 lakh of the looted amount was also recovered.Police also recovered six cellphones used by criminals before and after the loot for making calls. One country-made pistol and two live cartridges were also seized from their possession.
The SHO said all the five criminals were in their early 20s and Lal was the mastermind of the gang.
“Lal with firearms in both his hands, along with Pappu Kumar and Manish Kumar, had entered the bank while other criminals kept guard at the entrance during the loot,” he said, adding Pappu and Manish were yet to be arrested.
He said police first nabbed Lal after Monday midnight near Bathna Kothi on NH-28 under the Kuchaikot police station area and recovered arms and ammunition and Rs88,000 looted amount from his possession.
“On his information, Rs17,000 was recovered from Aditya’s possession. Aditya is a native of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh,” the SHO said.
He said Lal told police he had given part of the looted money to his close relative in Siwan and raids were on to arrest him. The SHO said at least five more criminals were involved in the loot.